"Bygdedjuret", by Sven Olov Karlsson.

The new novel Bygdedjuret of Swedish author Sven Olov Karlsson is now published by Natur och Kultur.

The village in Västmanland with its special mentality, a kind of grumpy envy, is the setting for this swinging, harsh and funny autofictional novel about an artist's life.

Do not be afraid. It's a sunshine story.

That's how the narrator Sven Olov begins this novel about his life. Do we believe him?

In his youth he sometimes had unexplained blackouts. Nowadays, in the middle of his life, they happen all the time, and he covers them up with comic book stickers and directions, excuses and white lies. More and more often he has to guess where he has been or where he is going. He is there, and not there. Owning books he doesn't remember writing, meeting a stranger on the underground who claims to be an old friend; life is starting to become as eerily vague as that ancient rumour of a secret treasure hidden in his childhood village.

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Read one of many reviews about the book at Göteborgs-Posten, by Oscar Westerholm

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Sven Olov Karlsson

Järna, 2023

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All the portraits of Sven Olov Karlsson are available at the Opale Agency.

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Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse.

The Swedish literature magazine Vi Läser has published an article on the Franco-Rwandan writer Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, in its November 2024 issue.

The article is illustrated by a photograph taken last September during her visit to Stockholm to promote her book Tous tes enfants dispersés (Autrement, 2019), published in Swedish under the title Alla dina skingrade barn by Ordfront (2024), in a translation by Nils Wadström.

You can read the full article in the latest issue of Vi Läser (nr 6-2024), available from your newsagent.

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Written about the book..:

Throughout her magnificent first novel, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse delicately tames ghosts and silences (Gladys Marivat, Le Monde des Livres).

The novel is a poignant meditation on the violence that ruptured so many lives (Lucy Popescu, The Guardian).

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Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse

Stockholm, September 2024

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All the portraits of Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse are available at the Opale Agency.

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"Sans nouvelles depuis Drancy", by David Hury.

The new historical fiction Sans nouvelles depuis Drancy of French writer, journalist and photographer David Hury is now published by Riveneuve Editions (Paris, 2024).

After Davids former novel Mustapha s'en va-t-en guerre, this is definitly a book to read for those interested in the former French colonial era.

You can read more about the book on the website of the author.

Sans nouvelles depuis Drancy is a great family saga, with its secrets, its greatness and its smallness. A extensive historical fresco retracing a decade of war and German occupation, of collaboration, raids and resistance, right up to the discovery of the death camps and the first disillusioned years of the post-war period.

Sans nouvelles depuis Drancy is the result of 3 years rigorous research into the archives of the army, the police, newspapers and the Shoah Memorial, as well as with the last remaining witnesses, reviewed by Shoah historian Renée Poznanski.

You can read an interview with David on ActuaLitté

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David Hury, Paris, 2021

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All the portraits of David Hury are available at the Opale Agency

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