Son Of Svea: A Tale of the People's Home

(Paperback)

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From one of Sweden's most astute cultural critics, a razor-sharp comedy of the progress and ruin of the industrial welfare state, told through the story of a single family. Ragnar Johansson is born in 1932, a transformative moment in Swedish history. He has Swedish social democracy flowing through his veins-convinced it lifted humankind out of the dark ages and into modernity, he cherishes it. At times Ragnar despises his mother, Svea, whose perpetual baking, scrubbing, and canning represent the poverty of the peasantry. Ragnar, for his part, hails the efficiency of washing machines and prefab food. Once he has children himself, he raises them in accordance with his values, standing in the ski track supporting his daughter Elsa as she works hard to become one of the best skiers in the country. While Svea is a relic of the past, Elsa represents hope for the future. In time, however, Ragnar realizes that the world is changing. Is his golden age coming to an end In Son of Svea, Lena Andersson offers a characteristically funny, wise, and moving family chronicle about the social transformations that unite and divide us, and about finding the courage to be true to oneself.

Reviews

Astutecircuitous, laugh-out-loud wit, adroitly captured in Sarah Deaths elegant translation. For all his insistence on absolutes, Ragnar is mired in ambivalence. Its what keeps his twisted logic fresh, even as he ages, and his country, along with his children, evolves beyond the plot hes imagined for them. Maya Binyam, New York Times Book Review

Anderssons writing is concise and direct, and it moves quickly, like an argumentHer mind is always reaching for the fascinating and unexpected conclusion. Sheila Heti, New York Review of Books

IlluminatingAndersson has a sure hand in calibrating the account of Ragnars life to match the contours of the changes that sweep his country. Publishers Weekly

Intellectual,agile, sharp,occasionally uncomfortable, always uncompromising, Son of Svea isa novel about modern Sweden from our most importantvoice, Lena Andersson.Her crystal-clear prose shapes Son of Svea into an absolute gem of a book. DavidLagercrantz, #1 bestselling author of The Girl in the Spiders Web

Lena Anderssons epic novel moves through a century of Scandinavian idealism like a winter storm. Son of Svea opens with the founding of social democracy, roars on through the rise of the welfare state and the murder of Olof Palme, and reaches an icy end in the ex-utopian Stockholm suburbs. Lena Andersson has an unparalleled eye for how ideology and family life interweave, turning the myths of modernism into something warmer and more intimate. Anderssons novel is a powerful ode to the humble people who gave Scandinavia the one thing America misses most of all: upward mobility that is more than just a dream.Mikkel Rosengaard, author of The Invention of Ana

Son of Svea is a sharp, skillful look at social democracy and the welfare state in Sweden through the life of Ragnar Johanssona determined and at times infuriating ordinary man who rises and recedes with the political movement. Born to a working-class father and an uneducated mother from the countryside, Ragnar sees the state as the answer to all of lifes problems, despite his own confusion and ambivalence about the world and his place in it. His mother, Svea; wife, Elisabet; and children, Erik and Elsa, are forced to contend with Ragnars fervent, sometimes cruel and fanatical beliefs about the correct way to livebeliefs that are eventually overwhelmed by time and change. This deeply interior novel provides a nuanced view of a social and political landscape that often glitters from afar, but islike all placescomplicated and full of contradictions. Karen Engelmann, author of The Stockholm Octavo

Ragnar Johansson is an ordinary Swedewhich is what makes this delightful novel so extraordinary. From the shape of his palm to his politics, Ragnar, born in 1932, embodies the Swedish social democratic idea that being different is dangerous and thinking yourself special, in any way, is shameful. But Ragnars world is changing and, for his children, a life of quiet tedium, without aspiration may not be enough. With wit, warmth, and a precise eye for detail, Lena Andersson shows us how being ordinary can be both a gift and a burden. Son of Svea will make you laugh and cry and, most important, think deeply about what it means to live a good life. Nancy Marie Brown, author of The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women

Lena Anderssons Son of Svea is an insightful dissection of the rise and fall of the Swedish welfare state, or peoples home, as it is known in Sweden. She writes with wry humor that walks the fine line between comic and tragic without ever putting a foot wrong. Anderssons keen eye for the subtle detail of many types of social mobility and the tragedy of different generations never truly connecting makes for a thought-provoking reading experience. Emmi Itranta, author of Memory of Water

Lena Anderssons precise, sharply drawn character types correspond to distinct groups in Swedish society, and her dry wit gently pokes fun at some of the downsides of the peoples home, but with deep affection for it. Son of Svea does a terrific job of inviting the reader to see through the eyes of a representative mid-twentieth-century Swede, who would likely never be willing or perhaps even able to explain exactly how they see the world. It illustrates the Nordic concept of Jantelagen (the law of Jante) in a very engaging, wry way. Julie K. Allen, author of Danish, But Not Lutheran

Andersson puts deep and complex faces to the past-bound Sweden of the early twentieth century, the designed Sweden of the peoples home, and the unraveling welfare state of the late twentieth century. Through Svea, Ragnar, Elsa, and Erik, many of Swedens great transformations of the twentieth century are revealed in human terms. Byron J. Nordstrom, Professor Emeritus of History and Scandinavian Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College and author of The History of Sweden

Praise for Lena Andersson:

Every word packs a punch; every other sentence is so wise and funny that it begs to be quoted. Anderssons gift for conjuring atmosphere and emotion out of small quotidian mishaps is extraordinary. The Guardian

An electrifying writer. Times Literary Supplement

Dry wit and sharp insight...If [Andersson] sees an intellectual pretension, she pricks it. The Economist

Author Bio

Lena Andersson is a novelist and a columnist for Svenska Dagbladet. Considered one of Sweden's sharpest contemporary analysts, she writes about politics, society, culture, religion, and other topics. Her fifth novel and English-language debut, Willful Disregard, was awarded the 2013 August Prize, Sweden's highest literary honor. Sarah Death is a translator, literary scholar, and editor of the UK-based journal Swedish Book Review. Her translations from the Swedish include Ellen Mattson's Snow, for which she won the Bernard Shaw Translation Prize. She lives and works in Kent, England.