He Swindled Everyone and Everything - Norstedtsagency.se

Literary fictionLiterary fictionGUNNAR ARDELIUSGunnar Ardelius (born 1981) made his debut with theYA novel Jag behöver dig mer än jag älskar dig.../I NeedYou More Than I Love You.... The book has been translatedinto several languages including English, Frenchand German. It was nominated for the August Prizeand won the Slangbellan Prize for best debut.Friheten förde oss hit is Gunnar Ardelius’ fourth book,the first aimed at adult readers.Friheten förde oss hitThe Love of Liberty Brought Us HereMarch 2012, 208 pagesSenior Editor: Håkan BravingerRights sold to: Actes Sud, FranceEnglish sample translation availableA Family Drama in 1960s Liberia“The sweat ran down their backs. The long journeyfrom an icy and chilly Stockholm was over; theyhad arrived in Yekepa. The powerful sun beat downon patches of unprotected skin and the dust settledquickly again on the ground. Like a herd of frightenedanimals they clung close together.”Hektor, Margret and their teenage son Mårten have justlanded in Liberia. It is the end of the 1960s and Hektor isabout to start his new job with the Swedish mining companyLAMCO. The journey carried with it the promise of anew start but he soon realises that his career at the mine willnot be straightforward. He is alarmed by the management’sattitude towards the local inhabitants and unofficial strikeaction is looming.Margret is unhappy in her new environment and finds theLiberians both frightening and exasperating. The heat isoppressive, her nerves are in shreds and she is missing herlover Axel back in Sweden. The only member of the familyto feel at home in the new country is seventeen year-oldMårten. He soon befriends the Snake Boy, the family’s unconventionalgardener, and meets red-haired Ingela who lovesHitchcock and The Saint. Mårten is living in a new era;he believes in change and in the international solidarity ofthe proletariat, and he sides with the Liberians against thecolonialists. However, his conviction and naiveté inevitablydrive events to the edge of catastrophe and place the wholefamily – and the Snake Boy – in danger.Friheten förde oss hit, the story of a Swedish family’s destinyin 1960s Liberia, is intensely gripping with its sense of forebodingand is a fascinating documentation of an often overlookedpart of contemporary Swedish history.Press voices:“The novel is a quiet gem, continuously moving, very melancholy.”Göteborgs-Posten“an exciting novel, vividly formed with a drive which also gives arealistic picture of how it could actually be for a Swedish familyin Africa in the 1960s. And he writes a precise, nuanced Swedishwith at times original metaphors, without any hint of cliché orrepetition. ” Helsinborgs Dagblad“a skilled language artist. He writes tersely and deliciously dry, butsometimes he lets go of objectivity and allows the text to flow outinto poetry. It’s often touchingly beautiful” Sydsvenskanlinda.altrovberg@norstedts.secatherine.mork@norstedts.seasa.bergman@norstedts.se