Roland Schütt was born in 1913 in Sweden. His mother, Zipa, is the heroine of the following excerpt, which is the opening of his first book. Born in Russia, she fled to Sweden as a seventeen-year-old and married Roland’s father, Fritiof, who is the hero. Roland spent his working life in machine design, making his publishing debut at the age of seventy-six in 1989 with Kådisbellan (The slingshot condom). The story would be made into one of Sweden’s most beloved films, with Stellan Skarsgard portraying Fritiof. In this largely autobiographical work, Schütt provides an unusual and convincing look at the vicissitudes of life for the children of a mixed marriage in Stockholm in the 1920s. Schütt’s brother Bertil has also written a popular memoir of these times, En skuggboxares memoarer (Memories of a shadow-boxer), and Roland published a second text, Brakskiten: En midsommarnattsdröm (A great fart: A midsummer night’s dream), in 1993.