Hi! This sounds like an awesome meme, so I hope you don't mind if I participate.
Your ability to read Swedish inspired my rec, which is Popular Music from Vittula (Populärmusik från Vittula) by Mikael Niemi. The novel is not SF; rather, it tells the story of a young boy living in the 1960s Pajala, in the Torne River valley in northern Sweden. It's told humorously -- it even exaggerates the humorous aspects of life in Pajala -- but it has something of a sad undercurrent. The novel was a huge success, which is why I'm reccing it. My own response to it was not quite as enthusiastic, though I did like it well enough. Maybe that's because it hit a bit too close to home. Not completely, of course, as I grew up on the Finnish side of the border twenty years later, but still it was far too recognizable as the environment of my childhood -- an environment I couldn't leave behind fast enough.
Nevertheless, I hope that's something you would enjoy. In fact, I think I'll reread it myself to see how I like it now.
Miscellaneous. Eclectic. Random. Perhaps markedly literate, or at least suffering from the compulsion to read any text that presents itself, including cereal boxes.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-23 06:51 pm (UTC)Your ability to read Swedish inspired my rec, which is Popular Music from Vittula (Populärmusik från Vittula) by Mikael Niemi. The novel is not SF; rather, it tells the story of a young boy living in the 1960s Pajala, in the Torne River valley in northern Sweden. It's told humorously -- it even exaggerates the humorous aspects of life in Pajala -- but it has something of a sad undercurrent. The novel was a huge success, which is why I'm reccing it. My own response to it was not quite as enthusiastic, though I did like it well enough. Maybe that's because it hit a bit too close to home. Not completely, of course, as I grew up on the Finnish side of the border twenty years later, but still it was far too recognizable as the environment of my childhood -- an environment I couldn't leave behind fast enough.
Nevertheless, I hope that's something you would enjoy. In fact, I think I'll reread it myself to see how I like it now.