New Swedish Books, autumn 2020 1
45 Autumn 2020 Monkey in the Middle Stephan Mende
l-Enk’s much-longed-for return to fiction is both a humorous and melancholy story about Jewish life in Gothenburg in the 90s. Monkey in the Middle is a powerful novel about brotherhood, faith, fanaticism, but also a tender depiction of a teenage boy’s struggle to deal with his father’s suicide. Jacob’s family has been plagued by divorce and death, but following several years of turbulence his world appears somewhat peaceful again. The Berlin Wall has come down, Rabin and Arafat have shaken hands and Jacob has finally been allowed to play for the permanently troubled Jewish football team Maccabi. But when his older brother – golden boy Rafael – returns to Gothenburg from Israel, things take a more serious turn. Having no real intention of finding a job, Rafael strikes up an acquaintance with a controversial local Rabbi and begins adopting his new friend’s more orthodox views. His behaviour unsettles the family, especially Jacob, and soon political and religious antagonism threatens to tear them all apart. And the football pitch becomes yet another arena of conflict. Monkey in the Middle is a stand-alone sequel to Mendel-Enk’s previous novel Three Monkeys (2010), and is a humorous yet affecting coming-of-age story about football and brotherhood, as well as a young man’s search for identity and the yearning to belong. Stephan Mendel-Enk The jury: A funny and witty book despite its serious subject matter, about Jewish life in Sweden. Novel, 240 p. Stephan Mendel-Enk Publisher Norstedts Rights Norstedts agency Linda Altrov Berg linda.altrovberg@norstedts.se Photo: Kajsa Göransson