New Swedish Books, autumn 2020 1
New Swedish Books 60 Dead FRIEND Simon is just se
venteen when he receives the phone call from the hospital: his best friend Kalle has died suddenly from meningitis. This marks the beginning of a long flashback, in which Simon looks back at how he and Kalle became friends, their hilarious teenage relationship, and at what his life has been like after that phone call. Dead Friend isn’t just Simon’s story; it is all the stories of the people who were close to Kalle. One of those stories, perhaps the most heart breaking, is that of Anna, Kalle’s mother, and of the way she dealt with the loss of her son. Simon’s clean drawing style (so graphic and cartoonish) and sharp irony clash beautifully with the complexity of the topic, making this book a profoundly nuanced portrait of grief and friendship, and one of the most unpretentiously deep comic books ever written. Simon Gärdenfors The jury: A book for all ages, written in a consistent and accomplished style. Comic book, Autobiography, 176 p. Simon Gärdenfors Publisher Lystring Rights Am-Book Alessandra Sternfeld info@am-book.com Photo: Jonas Eng