New Swedish Books, Spring 2020 1
7 Spring 2020 RolF No one is christened Rolf thes
e days in Sweden. Those who bear the name are usually men born in the 1950s and members of the working class. The sparse title of Malin Lindroth’s new novel provides a strong indication of what it is about: a beige-clad, almost invisible man who disappears in the crowd of all the other beige-clad, invisible men moving around the streets and squares, waiting for buses and commuter trains. Lindroth’s last book was titled The Spinster (2018) and was widely commented upon thanks to its gallows humour and strikingly sincere depiction of a woman who, partly involuntarily, ends up single. It was very much a counter-book in an era of loud incels. In Rolf, she continues to explore the invisible members of society – the cogs that drive the machine, but who do not make much noise. When it comes to Lindroth’s Rolf, this does not apply. Not any longer. He has murdered a woman, and when the novel begins, he is waiting for the police so that he can reveal who he really is, to himself and others. Malin Lindroth Selected works Vampyrkärlek, novel, 2009 Nuckan, essay, 2018 Awards Aftonbladets litteraturpris 1999 Novel, 154 p. Malin Lindroth (b. 1965) Publisher Norstedts www.norstedts.se Rights Norstedts Agency Linda Altrov Berg linda.altrovberg@norstedts.se Photo: Cato Lein