New Swedish Books, autumn 2020 1
37 Autumn 2020 Renegades Jonas Thente’s choice Kl
as Östergren had his popular breakthrough in 1980 with the hypnotic yarn Gentlemen. In 2005 its surprise follow-up Gangsters came out, making it clear that this was a project that sought to write the history of postwar Sweden, paying particular attention to its murkier corners. This autumn a third instalment is published: the almost 750 pages long Renegades. The multi-layered story continues, this time with hypocrisy and Swedish arms dealing as its red threads. But here some much more recent dirty business can also be found. Klas Östergren, who in all three novels appears as the narrator, was a member of the Swedish Academy but stepped down in 2018 in protest at the scandals that this venerable institution handled in the most unfortunate of ways. The turmoil following this affair gets its own section in the new novel. Klas Östergren Selected works Gentlemen 1980 Gangsters 2005 I en skog av sumak 2017 Selected awards Eyvind Johnsonpriset 1989 De Nios stora pris 2005 Selma Lagerlöfs litteraturpris 2012 Novel, 746 p. Klas Östergren Publisher Bokförlaget Polaris Rights Politiken Literary Agency Sofie Voller Sofie.voller@jppol.dk Photo: Charlie Drevstam