Kungen av Nostratien

John Forsman, a discouraged writer from a working-class background, is secretly engaged to finish the novel of Göran Frid, a popular, admired author left unable to work by a stroke. The manuscript has strange holes, and John comes to think there is a buried tale behind it. His ghostwriting alternates with childhood memories: his mother knew Ivar Lo-Johansson, and John remembers playing with the old proletarian writer, who longed to uncover a primordial tongue, a fixation that appears connected to Frid's intentions. Moving through Stockholm and through genres, the book weighs friendship, love, class, the writer's trade and where language comes from.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Length

347 pages in the original

Set in

Sweden

First published

2024 by Wahlström & Widstrand

Author's age

63 when first published

ISBN

9789146241164 (original)