New Swedish Books, autumn 2019 1
13 Autumn 2019 Karolina Ramqvist (b. 1976) The Be
ar Woman, novel, 346 p. Publisher Norstedts www.norstedts.se Rights Ahlander Agency Matilda Fogelström Johnsson matilda@ahlanderagency.com Selected works: Det är natten, essay, 2016 Den vita staden, novel, 2015 Flickvännen, novel, 2015 Selected literary prizes: Tidningen Vi:s litteraturpris 2009 P.O Enquists pris 2015 The Bear Woman Karolina Ramqvist made her literary debut in 2002 with the novel More Fire, a razor-sharp analysis of how colonialism still casts a shadow over modern-day Jamaica. Before that she was a well-respected music journalist and known as one the writers featured in the anthology Fittstim (1999), a bible for young feminists of the early 2000s. Since then, Ramqvist has written insightful essays, critiques and several novels in which she explores the different roles that women create for themselves according to their surroundings. Her new novel The Bear Woman is about an orphaned young woman who accompanies her guardian on an expedition to North America in 1542 with dreams of fame and fortune. But due to unforeseen events the woman suddenly finds herself alone and stranded in a foreign land. Refusing to give up, she dresses in furs and loads her musket. Three writers of the same era take an interest in her dramatic life and write about her. Their stories are then discovered by a modernday writer, for whom the Bear Woman’s fate becomes something of an obsession. Ramqvist elegantly weaves together the unlikely story of a tenacious survivor with questions about the true nature of story and what makes someone a writer. Photo: Alexander Dahl