New Swedish Books, Spring 2020 1
New Swedish Books 6 Entered into the Books Since
making his debut in 1985, Lars Jakobson has – book-by-book – come to be a national treasure. Few writers are as surprising and stylish in their prose as he is. He is one of the few great Swedish forerunners in the adoption and continued writing of the science fiction canon. His interest in Americana is acknowledged and the fantastic, metaliterary elements that constantly appear in his novels and short stories are reminiscent of the grand postmodernists and their roots. Jakobson’s new book comprises two parts. The first is an essay based on two American novels by Joanna Russ and Cormac McCarthy – classic post-apocalyptic depictions that pre-date contemporary interest in literature created in the shadow of catastrophe. The main part is devoted to translations of the American author Raymond Kimber. In the afterword, it is made clear that it has not been possible to verify the existence of Kimber, but that Jakobson found his novel ‘Children of the Void’ in an antiquarian bookshop in Copenhagen. This is a typical Jakobsonian touch. Lars Jakobson Selected works I den Röda Damens slott. En martiansk roman, novel, 2000 Berättelser om djur och andra, short stories, 2004 De odödliga, novel, 2015 Novel, 175 p. Publisher Albert Bonniers förlag www.albertbonniersforlag.se Lars Jakobson (b. 1959) Rights Albert Bonniers Förlag Helena Ljungström helena.ljungstrom @albertbonniers.se Photo: Joan Bravais