In "17 June" the main character Vidar has been suspended from his job as a teacher after an incident with a student. By chance, he finds an old phone number to his childhood summer house and calls it for fun.
It's his father who answers, a long-dead dad. At the next attempt, he asks to speak to Vidar – and is met by his own thin child's voice.
It's a kind of ghost story, a man who can call his childhood through the regular phone line. It comes from a poem by Bruno K Öijer called "Hålla honom kvar", where he writes in a few lines that he calls his childhood. I thought it was so nice, says Alex Schulman.
Vulnerable children
Loyal readers recognize the ingredients from his previous books: dysfunctional parents and vulnerable children have become a kind of foundation in Schulman's authorship. First in the autobiographical books "Skynda att älska" about his dad and "Glöm mig" about his mom's alcoholism, and later in the novels "Överlevarna" and "Malma station".
What is it that makes you live so close to the child's vulnerability?
That's the million dollar question. If I'm going to be completely honest with myself, I think it's about me still trying to understand what I was going through. And I haven't fully understood. I'm trying to reconcile with my parents, especially with my mom, and I'm not succeeding, he says and continues:
It's like I'm trying to write my way to reconciliation.
Wikingsson figures
Even though "17 June" contains episodes that feel experienced, it's obvious that it's not an autobiographical novel. And Alex Schulman has had an unusually good time writing this time – in the phone calls back to 1986, Vidar borrows various contemporary celebrities' names. Fredrik Wikingsson and Skims millionaire Jens Grede appear in the book, for example.
And the mom in the book is awful, but she's also quite funny. She has pitch-black humor, there's something absurd in her character that I found exciting. So it's not just black, there's something little funny there.
Recently, the filming of his first own film "Arkipelag" with Gustav Skarsgård, Linus Wahlgren, and Fares Fares in the lead roles was completed, and in the winter, he will direct his play "Mors dag" at Dramaten.
Screenplays and plays are so easy in some way. They're just dialogue, you just have to get into a rhythm, into a conversation's inherent melody. It's damn hard to write a book, much harder than everything else.
Sara Ullberg/TT
Facts: Alex Schulman
TT
Born: 1976
Lives: In Stockholm
Family: Wife Amanda and three children: Charlie, Frances, and Louis.
Background: Made a name for himself in public with his blog on Aftonbladet, which for a period was Sweden's most read on the net.
Debuted in 2009 with "Skynda att älska" about his father. In 2011, the book "Att vara med henne är som att springa uppför en sommaräng utan att bli det minsta trött" was released, which revolves around the relationship with his wife Amanda. "Glöm mig" from 2016 is about his mom, and in 2018 "Bränn alla mina brev" was released about his grandparents' relationship. "Överlevarna" (2020) and "Malma station" (2022) were his first fictional novels.
He also runs the podcast "Alex & Sigges podcast" with his friend Sigge Eklund, with whom he has written several books together.
Current with: The new novel "17 June", the film "Arkipelag" which will premiere in the fall of 2026, and the play "Mors dag" which will have its premiere at Dramaten in the winter.
