New Swedish Books, Autumn 2018 1
35 Autumn 2018 Liv Strömquist (b. 1978) I’m every
woman Publisher Galago www.galago.se Rights Am-book Alessandra Sternfeld alessandra@am-book.com Selected Works Prins Charles känsla 2010 Kunskapens frukt 2014 Uppgång och fall 2016 Selected Literary Prizes EWK-priset 2013 Sydsvenskans kulturpris 2014 Dagens Nyheters kulturpris 2015 I’m every woman In I’m every woman Liv Strömquist punctures the myth about the male genius by re-writing history from a female perspective. Here the reader encounters some of the women who have had to put up with existing in the shadows of their universally lauded and admired men. Strömquist takes the figures of Jenny Marx, Mileva Maric, Einstein’s first wife, and Yoko Ono, all who have been reduced to footnotes in the history books despite their contributions to their husbands’ successes, and subjects them to some muchdeserved rehabilitation. She confronts the myth about the artist in a couple of shocking portraits of Priscilla Presley and Ronnie Spector, describing their husbands’ egomaniacal self-centredness and pathological jealousy that made their wives’ lives into living hells. Liv Strömquist’s societal critique is constructed on equal parts fact, the utter joy of language and justifiable anger, and is told through a series of sharply expressive drawings. Like with any successful satire it is relevant, raging, and really funny. Photo: Livia Rostovanyi