Mail
PO Box 3159, SE-103 63
Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting Address
Sveavägen 56, Stockholm
Sweden
Phone
+46 8 696 89 10
E-mail
info@bonniergroupagency.se |
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| Category:
Fiction/General
| Publication:
2009 Autumn
| Option publishers:
dutch/de geus
french/gaïa
german/random house btb
greek/orfeas
spanish/roca editorial
| Rights sold:
Norwegian/Pax
| Agent:
Susanne Widén
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| Kjell Westö (Author) |
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| Swedish title: Gå inte ensam ut i natten |
The final book of four - each one of them also a perfect stand-alone - in Kjell Westö's hugely successful series set in 20th century Helsinki.
Three very different young people - the boys Jouni and Ariel with a working-class background and Adriana from the upper middle class - meet and become friends during the early 1960's. Their relationship is a kind of Jules and Jim-constellation in a time of changes and dreams of freedom and new beginnings. They form a song trio and Ariel writes the song which is also the title of the book, and of which they even make a record. But the record is not a success, and the lives of the three friends take separate turns. The strong-minded and talented Jouni is drawn to a career in the limelight and presently becomes a politician, while the frailer Ariel and Adriana have difficulties in finding their places in life.
The second part of the book introduces the reader to another trio of friends, again two boys and one girl, who grow up together in a suburb of Helsinki. Their story is told by Frank and involve his friend Pete and the girl he's in love with, Eva, Adriana's much younger sister. There are also other links between this younger generation and the friends in the first part of the novel - while working as a journalist, Frank gets to know Jouni, and they develop a kind of father-son-relationship.
With a haunting surge in the magnificent epic flow Kjell Westö brings post-war Helsinki to life and guides the reader onwards through the decades up to present day times. In a melancholic but never stickily sentimental tone, he lets time pass and make its imprints on the characters and the bonds between them, leaving the reader with a strong sense of how love, friendship, music and dreams bring us closer to each other and add meaning to our lives.
Quotes from reviews:
"I am not even for a second in doubt about Westö being one of the foremost prose-writers in the Nordic countries today."
(Svenska Dagbladet)
"This sentimental and magnificent piece of epic storytelling is basically about the loneliness of a whole generation."
(Sydsvenskan)
Reviews:
"I am not even for a second in doubt about Westö being one of the foremost prose-writers in the Nordic countries today."
(Svenska Dagbladet)
"Kjell Westö is an expert storyteller."
(Aftonbladet)
"This sentimental and magnificent piece of epic storytelling is basically about the loneliness of a whole generation."
(Sydsvenskan)
"Westö's way of looking at man and his talent for surviving life's twists and turns, is based on his confidence in him - in spite of everything. About as untrendy in our time as the epical novel... And just as welcome."
(Swedish Radio)
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