New Swedish Books, Spring 2018 1
13 Spring 2018 Balsam Karam (b. 1983) Event Horiz
on Publisher Norstedts www.norstedts.se Rights Norstedts linda.altrovberg@norstedts.se Balsam Karam works as a librarian in Rinkeby, Stockholm. Event Horizon is her debut novel. Event Horizon The town is surrounded by sandy beaches and sugar cane plantations. White tourists come to sunbathe and shop, while the revolutionary Essa and her daughter Milde are driven out. Along with other disenfranchised women and children, they are forced to build a new home for themselves by a refuse tip near the country’s border. They build a school and gather weapons: slingshots, Molotov cocktails, sawn-off shotguns. But they who fight the system are punished, and not only by death… Balsam Karam’s hyper-charged Event Horizon could be called a dystopia, if the depiction of persecution and violence didn’t come so close to reality. And in this politically radical novel of global disparities can also be found utopian glints of affection and solidarity, all written in an intense, melodic prose. Photo: Magnus Liam Karlsson