T he Swedes not only practice a rather sober and refreshingly clear design language with regard to their furnishing style. The Swedish author Lena Andersson also dispenses with unnecessary decoration in her recently published novel "Imperfect Obligations" and gets to the heart of the most enigmatic, most beautiful and sometimes most questionable feeling: love.
Lena Andersson already made it onto the bestseller lists in her home country with her first novel, “Wizard Takeover” and her unembellished, honest literary perspective. In 2013 she even won the renowned August Prize in the fiction category. The focus of her debut is the 31-year-old poet Ester Nilsson, who falls in love with the artist Hugo Rask. What initially sounds like the perfect romance soon turns out to be a one-sided interest. And while Ester tries desperately at first to excuse the absence of his messages with far-fetched reasons, at some point she has to face reality in a disappointing way.
In the new novel "Imperfect Liabilities" Hugo is history and Ester has resolved that such a thing will never happen to her again. And this time, too, the reader searches in vain for metaphors such as “floating on clouds” and “looking through rose-colored glasses”. Instead of castles in the air, Andersson once again describes love as it really is: unpredictable, confusing and anything but pink with icing. A book that, in the age of Instagram filters and hide and seek behind the online self, is reassuringly normal but anything but boring to read. Our tip for your summer reading.
Author photo: Ulla Montan
Cover photo: Luchterhand Literaturverlag
