New Swedish Books, Autumn 2017 1
21 Autumn 2017 The Free Word In the middle of the
noughties the young student Jonas Thunander takes up an internship at ‘The Free Word’, a publisher, left wing cultural magazine, and organisation – the standardbearer for left wing intellectuals. Right from the start a certain degree of chaos reigns. And it gets worse as the chaos escalates during the course of the eight years the novel describes. The Free Word is Johannes Klenell’s debut as a writer. He is the co-editor of a comics magazine and has worked in the publishing industry. The novel is a satire on the negative side of the publishing and media world, with its pseudo-intellectual posturing and the political and cultural attitudes that make people blind to themselves and what they’re doing. His characters are depicted with humour, warmth and a keen eye. You think you recognise someone but then the stack of cards is shuffled and what we end up seeing is instead an image of an epoch – our own. Johannes Klenell (b. 1979) The Free Word Publisher Natur & Kultur www.nok.se Rights Natur & Kultur nina.eidem@nok.se The Last Guest Andreas T Olsson (b. 1979) The Last Guest The setting is Stockholm, the restaurant Konstnärsbaren (the Artists’ Bar), or KB as it’s also called. A young man, Thomas Rapp, works there as a waiter. He’s good, knows his craft, is knowledgeable about food and wine and has a good eye for the needs of his guests. When Sara and Henrik show up and become regulars he attends to them with great enthusiasm, so great that both his mind and sense of judgement is affected. The Last Guest is an ingenious and compelling novel. Andreas T Olsson toys with both his reader and the character that we have come to know as Thomas Rapp. What are we actually being shown, and what are we actually part of as this whirlwind of events is unfurled before our eyes? Andreas T Olsson is an actor. The Last Guest is his first novel. Among other things, the book is about the many stages we find ourselves performing on in our lives – about who we really are and the ‘truth’ or the ‘truths’ behind the masks we put on. Publisher Natur & Kultur www.nok.se Rights Natur & Kultur nina.eidem@nok.se