Jwriting

I am a scoundrel, said Asp. I am a scoundrel with a sensitive conscience. It’s only scoundrels, by the way, who have a sensitive conscience, because they’re always pricking it with their villainy till it’s tender. You have no idea what I can get up to. And what self-reproach I’m …

Rose Lagercrantz was born in 1947 in Stockholm. She published her first work, Tullesommar (Tulle’s summer), in 1973, taught at the Children’s Theater at Medborgarhus in Södermalm until 1987, and has worked in radio and television. While probably best known as an author of sensitive and provocative literature for children …

Peter Mosskin is the author of more than a dozen books, including works dealing with the student revolution of the 1960s; texts about Jacques Brel and the Swedish folk singer Cornelis Vreeswijk, demonstrating Mosskin’s lifelong interest in music; travel writings; and a group of novels. The excerpt presented is the …

Her name was Katerina Alexandrovna and she was the widow of a Turkish officer—which was presumably the source of her notoriety, as her actual habits were beyond reproach. She lived with her two young daughters in a big yellow frame house on the outskirts of town. The fact that nobody …

Most of my dreams and plans had been tied up with Father. He was the one who brought home the great travel books, the exciting adventure stories, the boyish surprises. One evening he took me to the Roxy and we saw Charles Lindbergh fly over the Atlantic in The Spirit …

Kaj Schueler was born in Stockholm in 1949. Both his parents emigrated as teenagers from Nazi Germany to Sweden, where they met. They were involved in the Zionist movement and set out for Israel but decided to stay in Sweden after the war. Schueler is a journalist and assistant cultural …

Why did he help my grandparents? What were his motives? I haven’t been able to find any clear answer. In an early sketch of the flight my grandfather quotes a German proverb: ‘Wohltun tragt Zinsen’ (Charity draws interest)—a reference to the fact that at an earlier time he had helped …

Hédi Fried was born in 1924 in Sighet, a part of Romania that became Hungarian in 1940. In 1944 she was deported to Auschwitz, and she was freed from Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945. In July 1945 the Swedish Red Cross transported her to Sweden, where she went on to …

Rebecka grew up and became a beauty. Thick, dark hair and regular features, petite and cute. In the photos I have seen I seem to sense a sensuality and sadness. But they were taken later, much later. As a girl, she must have been charming and ready to laugh. Quite …

Lars Gustafsson, born in Västerås in 1936, is one of Europe’s most acclaimed writers. He has published scores of novels, poetry books, travel writings, plays, and critical essays, covering areas ranging from literary criticism through philosophy to politics. For several decades he has been one of the most prominent cultural …