Writing talent from Sweden has often been associated with tunesmiths penning songs for the pop charts. From Abba to Ace of Base and Roxette, Swedish pop stars have rarely relied on songwriters – unlike some of their American or British brethren – to land a hit; they simply used the Ikea approach: roll up your sleeves and do it yourself.
But over the last decade, the international spotlight has shone on another sort of Swedish writer. The country’s publishing industry is booming with novelists topping global bestseller lists who are being offered lucrative deals for translation of their works. Some of these writers and publishers are on their way to the UAE to take part in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. With nearly two dozen guests and a massive, Ikea-designed pavilion, the Swedish delegation is set to be one of the largest of the fair. Leading the guest list is Henrik Selin, the deputy director of the Stockholm-based Swedish Institute.
Consisting of writers spanning children’s literature, science, cooking and popular fiction, the delegation is out to expand our perception of Swedish literature.
“There is a big tradition of literature that comes from Sweden,” says Selin. “By us coming to Abu Dhabi and being part of the festival, it acts as a kind of relationship-building exercise. We also want people to know that Swedish literature is more than what is selling lots at the moment, such as, say, crime fiction.”
The Stieg Larsson effect
The numbers don’t lie. According to the Swedish foreign ministry, more that 3,300 titles were translated into 50 languages between 2006 and 2010, the lion’s share belonging to the country’s famed Scandi-crime and Nordic noir genres.
Leading the charge is the blockbuster Millennium series, a trilogy of posthumously published crime thrillers written by the late Stieg Larsson. The books – with their English-translated titles The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008), The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2010) – featuring the crime-solving journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, went on to sell more than 70 million copies worldwide. The popularity of the series also resulted in a boost in tourism as fans travelled to Stockholm to savour the books' setting.
Tourist attraction
To capitalise on the influx of tourists, the Stockholm City Museum began conducting regular two-hour walking tours of key locations mentioned in the Millennium books.
It has been busy in Sweden’s biggest city, says the tour guide Carin Christensen as we stand on the cobblestones overlooking Bellmansgatan 1, the 18th-century neighbourhood that Blomkvist calls home.
“Since 2009, we have done hundreds of tours and we had many people visiting from as far away as America and all over Europe,” she says. “But you are the first person I know of coming from the UAE.”
Christensen says there is no defining factor explaining the popularity of Swedish crime novels. However, she does admit the dark Scandinavian winter is an ideal setting to pen the perfect murder.
“There is a time during winter where it gets dark really early in the day. The sky during that time has an interesting colour,” she says. “It is a weird blue, rather spooky.”
The Swedish Institute’s Selin believes it is the juxtaposition of Swedish society’s calm façade and the violent plots that intrigues readers.
“There is this perception that Sweden is this nice country where everything is neat and organised,” he says. “But of course, Sweden is like any other country. Even though we are one of the best when it comes to gender equality, women are still susceptible to crime and inequality. These writers are doing something good for the image of Sweden – they portray the different sides of our country.”
Real stories for children
Debating social issues is not only limited to adult novels. A hallmark of Swedish children’s literature is its penchant for adult themes. The popular children’s author and illustrator Stina Wirsén says native children’s stories often present hard truths packaged in colour and whimsy.
She names her popular fiction series, Little Pink and Brokiga (translated in English), as an example.
“I am not really interested in the whole good-versus-evil thing that you generally find in children’s books and films,” she explains. “If we all the time tell stories about good and bad, you will leave the child with feelings of complexity. It’s important to tell children it is normal to be a bit of both – it is not the end of the world.”
With Sweden's famed support for education – the committees that award most of the Nobel Prizes are based in Stockholm – children's literature is viewed as a serious pursuit. The leading Swedish crime author Kristina Ohlsson, another visitor to the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, experienced this first-hand when publishing her debut young-adult novel, The Glass Children, in 2012.
“I suddenly got all these reviews and these serious newspapers dedicated big pages to discussing the book,” she recalls. “There is definitely a big difference between that and writing crime fiction, which, in some circles here, is viewed almost as writing dirty literature.”
The Swedes want you
Swedish readers are always on the lookout for foreign tales, says Selin. Accompanying him to the book fair is a group of representatives from Swedish publishing houses looking to meet regional authors and, hopefully, close a book deal or two. He also urges local authors to come visit the book fair’s Swedish Pavilion with manuscripts or published, non-translated works.
In terms of stories that could go down well in Sweden, Selin advises authors to keep it local and resist the urge to “internationalise” the plot to suit foreign readers.
“Anything that has got to do with traditions and people’s ways of life, whether it is Emirati or Middle Eastern, is very appealing,” he says. “Sweden is a small country in the north with only nine million people – we wouldn’t last a day if we are not open to different influences.”
• The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is held at Adnec from tomorrow to Monday. For more details, visit www.adbookfair.com
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