Swedish Contemporary Fiction 1
Steve Sem-Sandberg (b. 1958) Steve Sem-Sandberg o
nce told an interviewer, ‘As a writer, I’m motivated by my desire to understand. How people act in situations with impossible choices.’ Existential issues are always closely linked with history in Sem-Sandberg’s novels. Several of them deal with some of the darkest parts of Europe’s history. Again and again he addresses the unbearable issues at the very core of evil. In his award-winning, painstakingly researched polyphonic novels The Emperor of Lies (‘De fattiga i Łódz’, 2009) and The Chosen Ones (‘De utvalda’, 2014), he focuses on the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities in the Second World War. The Emperor of Lies tells of the Jewish ghetto set up by the Nazis in the Polish city of Łódz and its leader, Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. A Jewish man who did the Nazis’ bidding: how could he? The Chosen Ones is set in the real-life Spiegelgrund Clinic in Vienna, where hundreds of children were subjected to medical experiments and murdered during the Second World War. One of the main characters is Anna Katschenka, a nurse who becomes a key participant in carrying out the terrible deeds at the clinic. She is not an adherent of Nazism, yet she becomes one of its key enablers. What was the motivation for her actions? The question of responsibility crops up again and again in Steve Sem-Sandberg’s novels. His breakthrough work Theres (‘Theres’, 1996) is about the West German terrorist Ulrike Meinhof and the underlying motives that influenced her choices. SemSandberg laid the groundwork in this book for the documentary method of literary writing that is one of his trademarks. Excerpts from court transcripts, letters and newspaper articles are interwoven with fiction to create highly charged prose that often verges on the lyrical. Steve Sem-Sandberg has continued to employ this documentary technique, incorporating real documents and facts in his narratives. He is constantly exploring new storytelling methods, testing where the boundaries are between fact and fiction. But his powerful, in-depth character studies are what make him such a unique guide down in the darkest depths. Annina Rabe Rights sold to: 18 countries The Ocean 250 p. 2022, Albert Bonniers Rights: Nordin Agency In 1765, Rousseau spends 45 days at Île Saint-Pierre. His writings have made him one of the most noted figures in Europe. The Ocean is a gripping novel about an uncompromising, unique person whose only refuge lies in the plants that he collects on the island. W 421 p. 2019, Albert Bonniers Rights: Nordin Agency This is the story of Woyzeck, a loyal foot soldier who, in a fit of jealous rage, kills the woman he loves. It is a historical novel about a lonely man who joins the army to escape his misery and participates in one of the many wars in the early 19th century. The Chosen Ones 552 p. 2014, Albert Bonniers Rights: Nordin Agency The Nazis placed children whom they deemed superfluous at the Spiegelgrund Clinic in Vienna. Weak and critically ill children became test subjects in gruesome experiments before being put to death. A new chapter in Sem-Sandberg’s continuing oeuvre about Europe during the Second World War. 17 Swedish Contemporary Fiction Foto: Thron Ullberg