Swedish Contemporary Fiction 1
Susanna Alakoski (b. 1962) When Susanna Alakoski
won Sweden’s prestigious August Prize in 2006 for her debut novel Beyond (‘Svinalängorna’), many people said it heralded a new golden age for Swedish working-class literature. Alakoski has been a standard-bearer for that tradition with her novels, non-fiction, children’s books and drama. Poverty and class issues are ever-present themes in her books. She avoids simplistic explanations, choosing instead to view class issues in all their complexity. She provides subtle, nuanced portrayals of shame, feelings of inferiority, squalor, and alcohol and drug abuse. But amidst the misery there are also strong friendship, love and survival instincts – and plenty of dreams and desires. Another recurring theme is social mobility and the toll it takes on those who climb up the ladder. Susanna Alakoski has made that journey herself. She grew up in a poor family that had immigrated to Sweden from Finland. There were serious addiction issues in her family – not unlike the main character’s circumstances in Beyond. She also spent some time as a social worker. Her two non-fiction chronicles, October in Swedish Deprivation (‘Oktober i Fattigsverige’, 2012) and April in Quiet Despair (‘April i anhörigsverige’, 2015), combine notes from her childhood with observations of daily life, where many vulnerable people lack a safety net. Statistics on homelessness and poverty are interspersed among the notes Social Services made about Alakoski’s own family in her childhood. With Cotton Angel (‘Bomullsängeln’, 2019), Susanna Alakoski returned to the novel as a form. That book is the first volume in a planned tetralogy depicting the lives of working-class women in Finland and Sweden through the 20th century. The story deals with social class and work, as well as love and friendship and the ties between the two countries. As ever, Alakoski takes a thorough approach. The narrative is bolstered by information about the rise of trade unions and the cotton mill that employed large numbers of Finnish women. Nevertheless, she always places the human stories at the centre. In Susanna Alakoski’s world, the macrocosm is always portrayed via the microcosm, through individual lives. Annina Rabe Rights sold to: 8 countries 3 Swedish Contemporary Fiction The London Girl 332 pages, 2021, Natur & Kultur Rights: Nordin Agency It’s the 1950s. Greta has left her mother Hilda and the old cotton factory in Vasa for a better life in Stockholm. She shares a room with her best friend Aili and works as a nanny and a hospital orderly before her dreams take her even further away: to London. Cotton Angel 426 p. 2019, Natur & Kultur Rights: Nordin Agency Two girls dream of a new life in the nearby city, working at the imposing cotton factory. Cotton will be their way out, both a blessing and a new burden. A powerful novel about the exploitation that girls endure, about female friendships and women’s constant thirst for knowledge. Beyond 260 p. 2006, Albert Bonniers Rights: Nordin Agency A recently built housing estate in Ystad is filled with immigrant families and low-income earners during the 1960s. A moving story about social class, children’s vulnerability and their capacity to survive. Foto: Sara Mac Key