New Swedish Books. Spring 2016 1
SPRING 2016 LYRA EKSTRÖM LINDBÄCK IN OUR TIME MOD
ERNISTA RIGHTS: MODERNISTA “As a thirty-year-old fashion writer he shares characteristics with Patrick Bateman.” In Our Time Christoffer, the protagonist in Lyra Ekström Lindbäck’s third novel, exists within a very present now, in a selfabsorbed Stockholm, and in even more self-absorbed media circles. As a thirty-year-old fashion writer he shares characteristics with Patrick Bateman. And the author is careful in naming each brand of goods he consumes, regardless of whether it’s an item of clothing, a shampoo or a beer, or social media, something that occupies a great deal of his time. He isn’t, however, a mass murderer, but suffers from a boundless self-loathing, and a sense of ennui – symbolic for an entire generation. Lyra Ekström Lindbäck writes with a light touch, ironically and with a strong ear for dialogue. With In Our Time she has created an urban Stockholm novel, a novel for her generation, and a novel about a personal, yet perhaps also a kind of universal, early midlife crisis developing in the glare of our smartphones, all in one book. 13