New Swedish Books, autumn 2019 1
41 Autumn 2019 Patrik Svensson (b. 1972) The Gosp
el of Eels. Sons, Fathers and the World’s Most Mysterious Fish, 278 p. Publisher Albert Bonniers Förlag www.albertbonniersforlag.se Rights Bonnier Rights Elisabet Brännström elisabet.brannstrom@ bonnierrights.se Patrik Svensson is an arts and culture journalist at Sydsvenskan newspaper. The Gospel of Eels is his debut. The Gospel of Eels. Sons, Fathers and the World’s Most Mysterious Fish Anyone who has ever a cast a line knows that fishing is all about having faith in the presence of something that cannot be seen or understood. It is a state of mind reminiscent of childhood, and perhaps anyone who fishes needs to maintain a childlike confidence that nothing is impossible. This is perhaps especially true of fishing for eel, a fish unlike any other, whose strange life cycle cannot be fully mapped. In Patrik Svensson’s The Gospel of Eels. Sons, Fathers and the World’s Most Mysterious Fish cultural history and natural sciences are woven together with childhood memories of eel fishing with the author’s father. The structure of this book, the fishing line cast into the dark watery depths continues through time and space, to Aristotle, who believed that eels were engendered from the mud of the sea bed, and to their spawning place in the Sargasso Sea, which, despite its clear water, continues to conceal the eels’ secrets. This is a story about eels, but the mystery of eels also sheds light on humanity, our tireless search for knowledge and desperation to lay claims. But also our ability to rest in faith and trust. Then there are the glad tidings – the gospel – because the eels also tell a story of wordless love between father and son who cast their lines of hope into the dark water together. Photo: Emil Malmborg