New Swedish Books, Spring 2018 1
33 Spring 2018 Lars Nordström (b. 1954) The Fores
ters of the Faraway West Publisher Votum www.votumforlag.se Rights Votum cicci@votumforlag.se Selected Works Swedish Oregon 2008 Cˇiežain cˇáziin (North Saami: Sju slags vatten, with Harald Gaski) 2002 Swedish Roots, Oregon Lives 2013 Selected Literary Prizes Oregon Book Award 1998 Nordiska Samerådets pris för bästa barnbok 2002 American Scandinavian Foundation Niskanen Award 2008 The Foresters of the Faraway West It’s more than half a century since Vilhelm Moberg wrote his influential novels about ‘the emigrants’ Karl Oskar and Kristina, who left Sweden to make a new life for themselves in the USA. Several years ago, the series won a readers’ poll to find the best book in Swedish literature, which says something about Moberg, but also about the deep traces the great emigration left on Swedish culture. And perhaps it’s because Sweden has now been enriched with several generations of immigrants that our own history of emigration continues to provoke great interest. Ola Larsmo’s 2016 novel Swede Hollow is one example, and Lars Nordström’s The Foresters of the Faraway West is another. This is a gripping and beautiful depiction that tells, in text and image, of the living conditions and back-breaking work conducted by Swedes as the railroads were extended westwards across the USA, when the forest began to be exploited as a resource and the native population was displaced. Photo: Cynthia Nordstrom