After "Renegades" Klas Östergren thought he was done with his famous character Henry Morgan and his fictional stand-in, who appeared in three books. But writing took him back to the same universe.
The new novel is about the poet Konradsson who has written a preparedness poem on the threshold of Sweden's NATO membership, and almost becomes a national treasure. Klas Östergren let the narrative joy flow in the portrait of the frustrated and corpulent man, in the midst of the cultural elite.
Then Russia invaded Ukraine and it just got dumber and dumber. So the military elements have, so to speak, given themselves.
Peace project
Konradsson gets to, as usual in Östergren's books, share with several parallel stories. An author writes a biography about the poet and delves into how the car manufacturer Henry Ford paid for a boat full of peace activists. It was on its way to a conference in Stockholm, about the massacres of the First World War.
I think it was important to point out to young people that Sweden has had a peace movement, it has not been about hippies but serious members of parliament who thought about alternatives to military solutions. Today, it is hardly mentioned in the conversation, says Klas Östergren.
A shadow existence shows how Ford's peace project was sabotaged by "an invisible hand": the activists were portrayed as crackpots. In parallel, the author is drawn into influence stories from the East - against today's peace movement.
Ever since the beginning of the 20th century, anyone who talks about peace has been accused of being a friend of Russia or possibly a Russian accomplice and a useful idiot.
War fear
Östergren himself grew up with a father who had survived two brutal wars, and thus developed a kind of war fear. He has examined Sweden's arms trade with both Nazi Germany and South Africa, in "Gentlemen" and "Renegades". Now he highlights the process when Sweden threw itself into NATO, and Europe's enormous billion-dollar investments in defense budgets.
It went very fast to end up where we are today. Do we even have the money? Do we have room for anything else?
Has the tragic self-destructiveness that characterizes the characters in his books spilled over to all of humanity? Maybe, according to Klas Östergren.
How can you, during this time, when we know how bad the earth is doing, start such large wars, when it's the last thing we should expose the earth to?
This is a book that I hope is a bit fun to read, but it's actually rooted in a damn desperation.
Elin Swedenmark/TT
Facts: Klas Östergren
TT
Born: 1955
Current: With the novel "Klenoden"
Background: Made his debut as a 20-year-old with the novel "Attila" (1975) and had his breakthrough with "Gentlemen" (1980), which continued with the independent books "Gangsters" (2005) and "Renegades" (2020).
Has written nearly 20 novels, but also short stories, film and TV scripts, etc. Is also active as a translator. Was elected in 2014 as a member of the Swedish Academy. Left the Academy in connection with the crisis in the spring of 2018, and was later that year officially granted exit.
Upcoming writing plans: "The house is empty, the children have flown out. It's just me and the chickens at home on the farm during the days. I'm trying to keep going and have no intention of giving up. But you never know what happens in this industry. It's tough times. But I can even imagine going back to an old typewriter, the joy is something no one can deny me. Whether it will result in more books, you never know."
... the peace debate in the media: – Agnes Hellström has written 'Fredsfittan', a very interesting book. Her experience is that if she is invited to a conversation, it's often two men in uniform, and if the segment is twelve minutes, they get to talk for eleven and a half, and she for thirty seconds. Or they interview two military men, an old lady and a little child who says "it's scary with war". They have no chance of making their voice heard. ... the NATO process: – A government's task is to ensure that its country does not end up in war, what this government has done is to increase the risk by about 100 percent. Whether avoiding it is the coward's way or not, I refrain from judging. But I think the situation now is terribly difficult to relate to. Even the peace movement is involved in sending weapons to Ukraine.
