Adrian

Adrian, Kristian and Johannes are about twenty when they start studying literature in Stockholm around 2000. They spend their days on campus or at Kafé Valand, drink Swedish punsch, go clubbing and argue about books. Adrian, handsome and dull, partly brought up in Russia, wants to write poetry like his idol Gunnar Ekelöf. When he and Kristian share a sublet flat, Kristian is startled to find he desires his friend. Twenty-four years go by and ambitions wither: Adrian keeps working on his long poem while the other two settle into comfortable lives, and his affair with Elena, a nihilistic refugee from Ukraine, is painful and doomed. Wherever he goes, from Berlin to the Spanish coast to Norrland, Adrian feels ever more betrayed.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

490 pages in the original

Genres

Coming of age (assigned by AI)

Set in

Sweden, 2000s–2020s

First published

2026 by Albert Bonniers Förlag

Author's age

46 when first published

ISBN

9789100809485 (original)