11 Of The Best Swedish Books Available In English Translation
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Loading... - Adam Harris
- 06 Sep 2022
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Scandinavian literature is famous for its crime novels and bleak landscapes. Perhaps most famously, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Laarson, translated by Reg Keeland, took the world by storm (although Keeland still isn’t listed on the book’s cover). Published in 2005, it had sold 30 million copies worldwide by 2010, and was ranked by The Guardian as one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.
But looking past Stieg Laarson, what Swedish books available in English translation should you read? Please don’t assume that all Swedish literature is cold crime investigation and psychological thrillers — you should know that childhood classic Pippi Longstocking, about the antics of a wild, strong, mischievous red-pigtailed girl, came from Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, translated by Florence Lamborn.
So in order to give you this list of grim dystopias and creative speculative fiction, of stark realist literary fiction and emotional contemporary literature, I drew from a variety of genres and authors.
Some disclaimers: Marginalized authors, particularly authors of color, are less likely to be published and also less likely to be translated, and there is an unfortunate lack of them on this list. (Please let me know if I’m missing someone crucial!). This is also a list of translated literature specifically: In Every Mirror She’s Black is a recent novel by Stockholm-based Nigerian American author Lola Akinmade Åkerström, but it was written originally in English.
Over the past month, I have read, read, and read in order to recommend you these 11 Swedish books available in English translation, and I have loved every minute of it. So get reading!
THEY WILL DROWN IN THEIR MOTHERS’ TEARS BY JOHANNES ANYURU, TRANSLATED BY SASKIA VOGEL
Annika claims to be a woman from the future. Yes, she did take part in an act of terror, but that was before she remembered and tried to set it right. Yes, she does sometimes remember how to speak Annika’s language, but Annika’s body is not actually her own. She is a young girl from a future where Islamophobia has become a legal, contracted part of being a citizen of Sweden, in which people disappear constantly for being enemies of the state. As the protagonist, a writer, hears more of her story, he begins to believe her. He has to decide what future he wants to believe in, and what it means for the future of his wife and child. It’s a book of intense emotion and burning questions with searing answers. Is she really from the future? And if she is, did she actually manage to change it? Read More…
