A smorgasbord of Swedish culture will be served up at this year’s book festival with a host of authors, poets, illustrators, artists, musicians and actors travelling to the emirate to showcase the country’s intellectual, artistic and culinary endeavours.
Sweden is the designated “country guest of honour” with a pavilion designed by super-brand Ikea, running daily events for children, to mark its considerable presence.
Highlights from the Swedish cultural programme include: best-selling authors Kristina Ohlsson and Marie Hermansson discussing the Scandinavian noir genre (Friday, 8.45pm in The Tent). Majgull Axelsson and Monica Lauritzen discussing the history of women writers from the 18th century to the present day (Friday, 6.30pm in The Tent).
The chance to meet Jonathan Lindström, an archeologist and award-winning author of popular science books (Wednesday, 7.30pm in The Tent). A tribute to Nobel prize-winning poet Tomas Tranströmer, led by his publisher Eva Bonnier, in which the Swedish-Iraqi graphic artist Modhir Ahmed will display his works that were inspired by Tranströmer (Saturday, 1pm on the Discussion Sofa).
And music from the grammy-nominated Sami singer and musician Sophia Jannok (Sunday, 7.30pm on the Discussion Sofa); and, culinary inspiration from chefs Stefan Eriksson and Tareq Taylor.
cdight@thenational.ae
