What is evil? How does it manifest itself? This outstanding and very special novel by Swedish writer Pär Lagerkvist is written from the point of view of a dwarf, 26 inches high. He is proud of being a dwarf. In his opinion, dwarfs are not humans; they are a different species, a different and detestable race. But much as he regrets it, they are forced to coexist with humans – “a pack of ingratiating cows”. So he gives them what they want – if they want something bad done, he does it. If they need flattery, he will provide it:

“Human beings need flattery; otherwise they do not fulfill their purpose, not even in their own eyes.”

Pär Lagerkvist’s dwarf is a social outcast. He hates humans and everything about them; their smells, their pretentions, their bodies, and the assumptions they make about dwarfs.

The dwarf, Piccoline, serves at the court of an Italian City-state in the Renaissance as the servant and confidante of it’s prince. Exactly where is unclear, but since a character seemingly modeled on Leonardi da Vinci appears in the novel, it most likely is Milan (or it could be Florence – both Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are in the plot: one created in Milan, the other in Florence). Several real historical events and persons are mixed into the tale.

Piccoline becomes a confidant of the Prince and Princess, and he carries out missions for both of them – carrying secret messages, doing wicked things, keeping an eye on things. He does it willingly – he has no conscience. He doesn’t care. Humans are despicable anyway, so why would he?

“I have noticed that sometimes I frighten people; what they really fear is themselves. They think it is I who scare them, but it is the dwarf within them, the ape-faced manlike being who sticks up his head from the depths of their souls.”

So what if an atrocity is committed? If a human is killed or feels compelled to commit suicide? They are only humans! When he is asked to poison some enemies of the Prince, he willingly does it and poisons a friend of the Princess on the side as well, while he is at it. He dislikes him; he deserves it. His hatred extends in all directions and includes himself:

“It fills me with satisfaction that I am hated…But I hate myself, too. I eat my own splenetic flesh. I drink my own poisoned blood. Every day I perform my solitary communion as the grim high priest of my people.”

The novel – especially the thoughts and emotions of the dwarf – is shocking and thought-provoking. Swedish Nobel Prize winner Pär Lagerkvist is an exceptional writer and this is one of his best novels. Hatred and evil flows freely in every direction. Piccoline the dwarf is one of the most original characters in literature, a true nihilist. Pär Lagerkvist’s richly philosophical novel is an exceptional exploration of individual and social identity. The Dwarf is highly unique and I recommend it to anyone liking deep and meaningful books. It is extremely well-written and very fascinating.

Praise for The Dwarf:

“Don’t miss this. You will not soon find another like it. The evil in the Dwarf’s nature is in ours, too–is universal.” —Dorothy Canfield

Links to books by Pär Lagerkvist at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

This is not a crime fiction book by Henning Mankell, and not about Kurt Wallander. Italian Shoes is a novel – a book describing a voyage deep into the soul of an elderly man. Sixty-six-year-old Frederick Welin has been a surgeon. For the past 12 years he has lived alone in his little cottage on an isolated island outside Stockholm. His stay on the island is a self-imposed exile. He was guilty, and this is what he deserves; the punishment he has prescribed for himself. But why is he hiding? Will he ever be able to return from exile?

One day, in January, one cold, bleak mid-winter day, a lone figure is slowly coming towards him out there on the ice, an old lady on a walker. When she is close enough, he recognizes Harriet Hörnfeldt, the woman he had loved intensely in the summer of 1966 and then abandoned – 30 years ago. Finally she has tracked him down.

Now Harriet is dying of cancer. Ever since he left her, she has loved and hated him. The reason for her visit is that she wants Frederick to honor the beautiful promise he once made her – to take her to a pool deep in the forests of northern Sweden; to a place where he once, as a child, spent a wonderful day with his father.

This is the start of a long journey through the Swedish winter and, at the same time, deep into old, almost forgotten, perhaps even repressed memories of events far in the past and of love, intimacy and betrayal. The journey is strenuous and eventful – with accidents and problems, and with the past moving forward into the present. It provides him with an opportunity to take responsibility and face his past, to ponder who he really is, and forces him to recognize his own lack of consideration both for himself and for others.

Gradually Frederick realizes the extreme futility of his attempt to abandon himself and others. His questions about himself and his life get increasingly urgent: “Before I die,” Fredrik says, “I must know why I’ve lived.” But can he make up for what has been lost?

Italian Shoes is a wonderful novel, outstandingly translated by Laurie Thompson. Having read most of the books Henning Mankell has written, I consider this to be among his three best books, and I enjoyed it tremendously. It is tender and reminiscing, profoundly sad, and tells a rich story in a way that in many ways remind me of the writing of Norwegian author Per Petterson in his Out Stealing Horses. It is quietly told, yet rich in all manner of emotions. The story is one that will make you pause to reflect and consider. Italian Shoes is a deep, timeless, very impressive tale of redemption and renewal, about a man imprisoned by fear and pride.

Praise for Italian Shoes:

“a fine meditation on love and loss.” –Sunday Telegraph

“stark” — Sunday Times

“Mankell carefully maps the changing seasons in beautifully stark prose”
–FT

Links to books by Henning Mankell at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Inger Frimansson is a Swedish author and journalist who writes psychological thrillers, in many ways similar in style to Karin Alvtegen and Karin Fossum. Her breakthrough in Sweden came with the novel Good Night my Darling in 1998 (see also our review of  The Shadow in the Water).

If you expect Island of Naked Women to be a soft porn novel, you are in for a disappointment. The title has a historical explanation, but is somewhat parenthetical to the content of the novel. Instead, this is another psychological thriller by Inger Frimansson, written is a style she masters to perfection. In 50 or so pages she sets the stage for an exciting and suspenseful novel with a tense atmosphere. And when things start to happen, the consequences are bad both in a real sense and psychologically – and it really feels as if they had to be bad, nothing else would have been right in the dark scene so vividly drawn by Frimansson.

In Island of the Naked Woman (superbly translated from Swedish by Laura Wideburg), writer Tobias Elmkvist, a Stockholm novelist with career troubles, tired and at times deeply depressed, returns to his childhood home in Ôstgötaland to visit and help his father, Carl Sigvard. His relationship to him is not good, as Tobias (wrongly) feels that his father is ashamed of him. Even so he feels that he now needs to help his father who is confined to his bed after having broken his leg.

When he arrives, he meets his father’s younger partner, the somewhat coarse Sabina Johansson, and finds himself strongly attracted to her. As it turns out, the attraction is mutual. And shortly after, as Tobias and Sabina give in to their desires in a barn tack-room, a disapproving local, Hardy Lindström, walks in and confronts them. Tobias gets scared, and plunges a screwdriver into Lindstrom’s throat. He thinks he has killed him. However, when he later returns to the barn, he finds no trace of the body and no blood. Was it a dream? Did he imagine it all?

Island of the Naked Women is more a psychological thriller than a mystery novel. There is no mystery in the book for the reader. Rather this is more a study of guild and emotions associated with it. It is well written and composed, and the characters are very intriguing, constructed in a manner that makes for strange dynamics and lots of tension. A good, suspenseful book with a tense atmosphere which I recommend.

Links to books by Inger Frimansson at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

See more reviews of Swedish crime fiction at ScandinavianBooks.com!

Johan Theorin has so far only written two books. Both are excellent. As a result, he is a bestseller in his native Sweden (in competition with Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell). The first novel, Echoes from the Dead, has been well received internationally. This novel, The Darkest Room (Nattfåk – which means something like Night fog), the second in a planned series of four, is in my opinion even better. Like his first novel, this too is an intelligent book somewhere in between a crime fiction book and a ghost story.

A couple from Stockholm, Kathrine and Joachim, with their two children – Gabriel and Livia – has purchased an old manor house on Eel Point on the Swedish island of Öland. It has been empty for a long time – apart from the spirits of the dead, that is – and the houses have been neglected, but they want to renovate it and move in. The house has a strange history; it was built on timber from a ship that sunk in 1846. It is rumored to be visited by ghosts.

Strange things are still going on in the house. Before long, Katrine is found, drowned, close to the house. It looks like an accident, but the young policewoman Tilda Davidsson is not convinced that it was an accident. There are many strange things happening, and many houses are visited by thieves during the night.

Tilda Davidsson, who recently started working with the Marnäs police, is the grandchild of old Erlof’s brother (from Echoes of the Dead), and is interested in the history of Oland. She begins to investigate the accident, while also tracking down a gang denuding the uninhabited summer residences of antiques. More and more it becomes clear that somehow, for some reason, the gravitational center of the many odd things that seem to be happening is Eel Point.

The Darkest Room is well written, full of mysteries, and told in a style that evokes a feeling of that there is something mystical, perhaps super-natural, going on. The plot is rich and has lots of neat features, and Theorin very skillfully shows his cards one at a time in order to gradually build more and more suspense. As well, this is a book which displays a deep understanding of human vulnerability and grief. Another good Swedish crime fiction book, highly recommended!

Links to books by Johan Theorin at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Wall Street Journal reports that Bertelsmann-owned publisher Alfred A. Knopf is betting that Swedish thriller author Stieg Larsson has the potential for mega-sales in the U.S market. Stieg Larsson’s first novel, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, proved successful in the US market and sold 225.000 hard cover copies. This number means that it was one of the most successful debut novels in 2008 in the US.

So now, as a result, the publisher has committed some six-figure sum to an advertising and marketing campaign in prestigious magazines and newspapers, on high-end Web sites, and on Facebook and Twitter. The marketing campaign will both support his second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and the paperback edition of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Great news for fans of Stieg Larsson, and a good move by Knopf. American publishers are generally  not, in my opinion, good enough when it comes to promoting books by foreign authors. It will be interesting to see the result of this new initiative!

(Read more about Stieg Larsson at ScandinavianBooks.com!)