New Swedish Books, Autumn 2018 1
New Swedish Books 14 Dimitris Alevras (b. 1981) T
he Man in the Room Publisher Norstedts www.norstedts.se Rights Norstedts Catherine Mörk catherine.mork@norstedts.se Works Världens sista kväll, novel, 2015 The Man in the Room How can we open up to something – or someone – beyond ourselves? Are our bodies the only constant that remains with us throughout our lives? How can we leave our mark on the world? These are the questions central to the pensive protagonist, who leads a life characterised by transience and loss. He writes a book but abandons it, gets a job and resigns, meets people only to leave them. His friend Pavel shows him his photos of corpses, some of which are real and others of which are people pretending to be dead, but he cannot distinguish between them. Dimitris Alevras’ The Man in the Room is an unconventional work of prose in which short scenes are suffused with existential alienation. Through densely concentrated language, Alevras raises the emotional intensity to an almost painful degree. Photo: Magnus Liam Karlsson