Can you write anything you want about your boyfriend? And how far can you go to try to change him?
"I just want to show that it can still be that way, even though it's wrong," says Amanda Romare, as she hosts in her 44-square-meter apartment in Malmö with her boyfriend, who is sitting at the computer with noise-canceling headphones on.
The book's Amanda is not merciful: she panics at her partner's developing bloated stomach and lethargic lifestyle. She thinks he's nice, but all she sees is his back hunched over in front of the computer and his hemorrhoids protruding between his buttocks.
"Then I want to carry him to the exercise bike and push the Ozempic syringe into his thigh." Later in the book, she pushes it straight into his stomach.
I don't like cultural debates.
The debate about the book is about both psychological abuse and taking literature down a dangerous path. Amanda Romare herself tries to avoid commenting, because she generally does not like cultural debates.
"There are other, more important things too, like what's going on around the world. And sometimes they can get so damn magnified."
It's just a matter of dealing with the fact that people have opinions, she notes.
"It's probably good in a way too, because I think you should judge when a person is mean to another."
Just like her breakthrough book, "Judas" is written in diary form and gives the feeling of total disclosure. But everyone involved has been allowed to read in advance and has had veto power over what is revealed about them. Amanda Romare is also clear that there are large elements of fiction.
Where is the limit to how much she exposes herself?
"Possibly some of my worst OCD thoughts, because I feel they could be picked up the wrong way. Then I could be painted as the most disgusting sex addict in the world, or so my sex obsessions say."
Hoping for Netflix
"Halva Malmö" was also a success as a Netflix series and the dream is that "Judas" will also become a TV series. However, nothing has been decided.
For Amanda Romare, the wheels are turning fast. In the near future, she will be working as an Olympic commentator and on a youth series for SVT. She is well along on her next novel, where the main character is not named Amanda, and she is also working on a feature film project.
The long-term dream is to be confirmed "as a wise and very talented writer."
"But I actually never think I'll land there."
"Right now I'm just happy every day I wake up and feel a little grateful that I'm not 'cancelled' or dealing with some kind of disaster."
Cecilia Klintö/TT
Facts: Amanda Romare
TT
Amanda Romare, born in 1989, broke through in 2021 with her debut novel "Half of Malmö consists of guys who dumped me", in which she describes single life and endless dating in the first person.
The Netflix version of "Halva Malmö" premiered in the fall of 2025 and was a success in Sweden.
In the sequel "Judas", dating has turned into a stable relationship and it turns out that even that life has its own great struggles.
