Eva Lindström – laureate 2022 1
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Exploring the work
of Eva Lindström This is an excerpt from the jury’s in-depth presentation of Eva Lindström and her work, written by jury members Elina Druker, Lena Kåreland and Per Gustavsson. You can read the complete text at alma.se. Originality Eva Lindström has an altogether special profile among Swedish picture book artists. Her unusual narrative worlds, through which odd, lost, characters wander, possess enormous originality. In both words and images, she portrays moods and emotions that may relate equally to big life questions and to the everyday events around which a child’s life revolves. Humour and excitement Eva Lindström often takes her point of departure in the world of children’s experiences and logic. In a number of books, she captures the kinds of exciting dramas that play out among children. Shrewd humour exists side by side with absurd mystery. In Jag gillar Stig (I Like Stig, 1998) and Jag och Stig gräver en grop (Me and Stig Dig A Hole, 2000), she describes friendships, but also jealousy and a power struggle. Children’s 14 games become imbued with unexpected meanings and can take on philosophical dimensions. Eva Lindström frequently composes her illustrations using flattened perspective. She also often works within a small frame, placing her focus on physical comedy and body language, as in Limpan är sugen (Sizzles is Peckish, 1997), a picture book with no words that tells a story about a woman, a dog and a sausage. When the three meet, a dynamic interaction begins that suggests both friendship and community. Apan och jag (Monkey and Me, 2011), a similarly pareddown story, is told in rhyming verse and depicts a hide-and-seek-like game charged with both jealousy and longing. But in Eva Lindström’s books, text and image do not always speak in unison. Her stories offer multiple interpretations and meanings, and perhaps also new