New Swedish Books, autumn 2020 1
59 Autumn 2020 Always Goodbye The jury: Cleverly
told, parallel stories taking place at different moments in time. Insightful without being obvious. Twelve-year-old Alma hasn’t even left for her summer vacation and she’s already homesick. She lives in Umeå with her mother Johanna, and all her friends, including her best friend Lina, live there too. A hundred miles away is the town of Gerlesborg, the home of her father, where she’s meant to spend the entire summer longing to be back in Umeå. But when you’re only 12 that’s not a good enough reason to be the one who decides not to go. Then the story jumps 30 years back in time and we now meet a young Johanna. She’d rather be anywhere else than with her parents, who are struggling through a divorce. Her mother’s new boyfriend is really annoying and her father doesn’t understand anything at all. They want Johanna to choose which parent she wants to be with. But how can a child make that choice without being consumed by guilt? Always Goodbye delicately portrays two stories about children of divorce, seen through the eyes of two generations. A poetic and beautifully drawn tale that captures the child’s perspective. It is a story about love, loss and ambiguity and how, reluctantly, you always have to say goodbye. Alma Thörn Comic book, Autobiography, 317 p. Alma Thörn Publisher Galago Rights Am-Book Alessandra Sternfeld info@am-book.com Photo: Johannes Samuelsson