New Swedish Books, Autumn 2018 1
New Swedish Books 60 Moni Nilsson (text) b. 1955
Joanna Hellgren (ill) b. 1981 That Much Love Can Never Die Publisher Natur och Kultur www.nok.se Rights Koja Agency Catharina Lantz catharina.lantz@ kojaagency.com Moni Nilsson Selected Works Semlan och Gordon: Pappan med de stora skorna 2009 Klassresan 2001 Tsatsiki och morsan 1995 Moni Nilsson Literary Prizes Astrid Lindgren-priset 2010 BMF-plaketten 1999 Nils Holgersson-plaketten 1998 That Much Love Can Never Die Lea’s mum is dying of cancer. She’s performed at the big Cancer benefit and all of Lea’s friends tell her that she will die. Everybody looks at Lea differently, even her best friend Noa, who Lea has decided never to speak to again. Maybe if she hates Noa then Mum doesn’t have to die. Death is too enormous to cope with. An event that consumes everything that’s whole. The process of dying only becoming graspable through the minutiae of the everyday. And it is the details that shine here. The small encounters in the margins of the big occurrence. Like for example when, at the school disco, Lea sits behind a tall curtain eating sweets with the school celebrity, child actor Barto. Or when Lea punches Konrad’s nose. The crisis that Lea’s family is thrown into opens the door to the most unexpected contacts. Joanna Hellgren’s finely-tuned illustrations accentuate this intimacy through their setting, allowing us to encounter death. Photos: Karl Gabor Photo: Mia Carlsson