Swedish Contemporary Fiction 1
Therese Bohman (b. 1978) Drowned (‘Den drunknade’
). The Other Woman (‘Den andra kvinnan’). Eventide (‘Aftonland’). The titles of Therese Bohman’s novels may seem mundane. That is quite intentional. She chose those titles as a way of playing with clichés, but also to evoke a certain timelessness. While Therese Bohman exists firmly in the present day, her writing also has a classic, timeless quality – both in her carefully crafted prose and the subjects she deals with: exclusion, loneliness, passion and power games. Her characters perceive themselves as loners in Andromeda 198 p. 2022, Norstedts Rights: Nordin Agency A young woman starts working as an intern at a famous publishing house, staying for many years and gaining more responsibility. The novel grows into a story about tradition and modernity, expectations and disappointments, idealism and crass reality. Eventide 230 p. 2016, Norstedts Rights: Nordin Agency When Karolina starts to tutor a new postgraduate student, she is affected by his self-confidence. He claims to have found new information on an unknown female painter. Karolina soon finds herself entangled both professionally and emotionally. The Other Woman 202 p., 2014, Norstedts Rights: Nordin Agency This novel is a passionate psychological drama where questions of power and sexuality are brought to a head. But it is just as much a novel about finding one’s dreams and challenging the fears within. an incomprehensible, banal environment. The young woman in The Other Woman (2014) works in a hospital kitchen and dreams of a world filled with art, literature, beauty and higher learning. When she embarks on an affair with a senior physician, she dares to hope that he will be her gateway into that life, though she knows deep down that her role is that of the outsider, ‘the other woman’. But then the power relation shifts, and the resolution comes as both a surprise and a relief. Therese Bohman provides a fresh, smart take on one of the most overused clichés – love in a hospital setting – and turns it into a sharp, intelligent analysis of social class. In Eventide, Bohman continues her examination of loneliness and exclusion. Karolina, a single, childless middle-aged art professor is ill at ease in the contemporary world. She has got stuck in her joyless existence. She feels out of place among shameless careerists at the university where she works. Her love life is nothing to write home about either, though she has no trouble attracting men. Bohman’s observations on relationships and the hypocrisies of academic life are razor-sharp. The settings she conjures up are reminiscent of the classic paintings that are Karolina’s area of expertise. Therese Bohman’s writing has a timeless quality – not least of all in her outstanding ability to escalate a seemingly event-free story, leaving the reader uncertain how things will turn out until the very last pages. Annina Rabe Rights sold to: 11 countries Swedish Contemporary Fiction 6 Foto: Norsteds