People & Culture - Sweden - page 698

Royal Physician; 2003), in which King Christian VII's physician conspires with the queen
to seize power.
Readers interested in deepest Norrland, with its strange and uniquely remote vibe,
should investigate the work of Swedish Academy member Torgny Lindgren, particularly
his novel Pölsan (Hash; 2004), or the short stories in Merab's Beauty (1989).
Mikael Niemi's (1959-) novel Populärmusik från Vittula (Popular Music; 2003), a
coming-of-age story of a wannabe rock star in Sweden's remote north, became an interna-
tional cult hit, as well as a 2004 film directed by Iranian-born Swedish director Reza Ba-
gher.
Nonfiction author Sven Lindqvist (1932-) is recognised for his hard-hitting, sometimes
controversial titles. His most famous offering is arguably Utrota varenda jävel (Extermin-
ate All the Brutes; 1992), exploring the Holocaust-like devastation European colonists
wrought on Africa. More recently, his book Terra Nullius (2005, translated into English in
2007) is a powerful, moving history of colonial Australia and the attempted destruction of
Aboriginal culture.
The unlikely publishing phenom of 2013 in Sweden was A Man Called Ove , a novel
about a grumpy old man in a Swedish suburb who struggles (comically) to deal with the
changes modernity has brought to his country and, more importantly, to his parking area;
the topic was a surprise hit domestically for journalist and blogger Fredrik Backman and
has been widely translated into other languages. It's a light read but offers an insightful
view of life in a modern Swedish apartment community.
Crime Fiction
The massive success of the Millennium Trilogy, by the late journalist Stieg Larsson (he
was the second-best-selling author in the world for 2008), has brought new and well-de-
served attention to Swedish crime fiction, which was already a thriving genre domestic-
ally. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005) - originally entitled Män som hatar kvinnor
(Men Who Hate Women) - is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this genre; Swedish
crime writers have a long and robust history.
A few names to start with include Håkan Nesser, whose early novels The Mind's Eye
(1993) and Woman with Birthmark (1996) have at last been translated into English; and
Sweden's best-known crime-fiction writer, Henning Mankell, whose novels are mostly set
in Ystad and feature moody detective Kurt Wallander. Johan Theorin's quartet of mysteries