Swedish Contemporary Fiction 1
Anne SwÄrd (b. 1969) ‘Beware of love.’ That is th
e advice Lo, the protagonist of Anne Swärd’s novel Breathless (‘Till sista andetaget’, 2010), receives from her mother. When three of Swärd’s novels were republished in a special single-volume edition, the collection bore that warning as a title. ‘Beware of love’ could serve as a summary of much of Anne Swärd’s writing. Time after time, she returns to the themes of dangerous love, forbidden and destructive love. There is also the urge to surrender to love, to leap right into the danger. Powerful forces and big emotions are always circulating in Anne Swärd’s books, expressed in sensuous, clear prose. In her debut novel Arctic Summer (‘Polarsommar’, 2003), she portrays a family drama, as seen from the six family members’ different perspectives. Quicksand (‘Kvicksand’, 2006) is loosely connected with her first book. It is a dark future dystopia about a disintegrating society. Swärd’s most recent novel, Jackie (‘Jackie’, 2020), begins with a young woman on a train bound for the city, where a new, unfamiliar life awaits. She is meant to be starting art school, but on the train she is drawn into a passionate love story, an adventure she eagerly embarks on. But as time goes on, the man becomes increasingly controlling and then violent. Swärd is skilled at gradually increasing the pressure in her novels, slowly tightening the noose until catastrophe is inevitable. Her 2017 novel Vera (‘Vera’), set around the time of the Second World War, describes the conditions for refugees and exile. A very young pregnant woman flees from the horrors of war to Sweden, where she marries into an icy cold upper-middle-class family with dark secrets. You could say that Anne Swärd works with contrasts. Dark is set against light, ice against fire, a restricted life against one lived to the full – with all the risks that entails. Her writing drills down into big, life-and-death questions and all the hazards involved in living. Annina Rabe Rights sold to: 17 countries Jackie 370 p. 2020, Albert Bonniers Rights: Nordin Agency A novel about a young woman on her way to Stockholm and the life that is waiting for her there. It’s the hot summer of 1988; nothing has happened yet. The man she ends up meeting is beyond anything she could ever imagine. Vera 344 p. 2017, Albert Bonniers Rights: Nordin Agency Young Sandrine comes from the darkness of war into a sundrenched lull in Sweden. The year is 1945. Her only baggage is a child she’s planning to get rid of, and a secret she’s prepared to do anything to keep. Arctic Summer 206 p. 2003, Albert Bonniers Rights: Nordin Agency Kristian returns to his childhood home to look after his sister Kaj. During a few emotionally charged summer weeks, a family drama unfolds. At the centre of events is Kaj – the innocent, unpredictable 22-year-old, and the reason why their father left his family. 21 Swedish Contemporary Fiction Foto: Thron Ullberg