New Swedish Books, autumn 2020 1
New Swedish Books 46 Monsters in Therapy A psycho
logist has gone missing. A collection of documents is found in her office: her work diary, letters, research material and transcripts of therapy sessions conducted for a book project. Through the transcriptions we follow her conversations with a doctor suffering from an identity crisis, a lesbian psychopath vampire, the offspring of a manic scientist, and a narcissistic dandy. They are four of the most iconic monsters of the Victorian era – Dr Jekyll, Carmilla, Frankenstein’s monster, and Dorian Gray – yet their struggles are timeless dilemmas. How can you learn to accept your darkest, most shameful personality traits? When everyone is afraid of you, how is it possible not to hate yourself? How do you age with dignity in a society obsessed with youth? And how do you explore your sexuality in a prejudiced world? Mats Strandberg and Jenny Jägerfeld mix popular culture with psychology and literature to create a genre-bending and thoughtprovoking book. With humour and gravity in equal measure, they ask the right questions and analyze the answers. Their goal is to help the monsters – and perhaps also the reader. The jury: Funny and clever! Popular science at its best. Thrusting history right into a contemporary moment. Jenny Jägerfeld and Mats Strandberg Fiction, 289 p. Publisher Norstedts Jenny Jägerfeld, Mats Strandberg, Elin Sandström (ill.), Lotta Kühlhorn (design) Rights Grand Agency Lena Stjernström lena@grandagency.se Rights sold to Croatia/Fokus, Finland/Like, Germany/Blanvalet, Italy/il Saggiatore, Sweden/Norstedts. Film rights: ITV Sweden/UK Photo: Henric Lindsten Photo: Henric Lindsten