New Swedish Books, Autumn 2017 1
New Swedish Books 66 The things I did’nt say Yrsa
Walldén debuts with a sensitive and subtle novel about love, written from an ‘I’ to a ‘You’. The narrator is almost 19 and has just left home for university. She’s shy, quiet and socially awkward, but here is her chance to leave all that behind and start afresh. “It’s exactly twenty two minutes past eleven the first time you kiss me. The last thing I see before closing my eyes and before your lips touch mine is a digital clock on a bedside table flashing blue digits. 23:22. Twenty two minutes past eleven and my whole world is turned upside down.” Perhaps, in all its simplicity, the tale of how girl meets girl is not that uncommon. What’s different with The things I did’nt say, however, is not the story but the voice, and this is what makes the book special. Yrsa Walldén (b. 1989) The things I did’nt say Publisher Opal www.opal.se Rights Opal anja@opal.se Yrsa Walldén lives in Malmö, she is a trained scriptwriter and gender studies researcher. This is her first novel. Photo: Private