Welcome to Swedish Book Review on the web! SBR was launched in 1983. It publishes two main issues and a supplement every year. The main aim of SBR is to present Swedish literature to the English-speaking world. It carries translated extracts from the works of Swedish writers, often together with an introductory article.

2007:1 issue

Our 2007:1 issue focuses on Carl Linnaeus, the renowned Swedish naturalist, in his tercentenary year. Sideways looks can help us discover surprising new angles, and that is what this issue provides: not so much Linnaeus himself, more the way he is reflected in others' texts: from literature, in the novels of Ann Granhammer and Magnus Florin, to popular science, in the writing of Sven-Eric Liedman. We hope this issue of SBR will whet readers' appetites; the many tercentenary events will make Linnaeus better known in the UK. Like Linnaeus' apostles we, too, range far and wide: to Croatia, for the latest in our series on how translated Swedish literature fares in other European countries to New York and Vienna for Lotta Lundberg's powerful fictional exploration of "normality" and what constitutes a worthwhile human life and to Uppsala in Sweden to glimpse the tough life of an early twentieth century midwife depicted in Kerstin Ekman's novel God's Mercy. ·  Full Details

2006 Supplement: Writing for Young Adults

A few years ago, it seemed that reading amongst young people in the UK was in something of a decline. Then along came a boy called Harry Potter, and suddenly children everywhere were immersed in a world of magic and fantasy. Children's books enjoy a high profile in Sweden, and a new genre has gradually sneaked in between the traditional children's book and adult fiction. It has not been a simple task to choose authors and extracts for this supplement. The final mixture includes black humour, laid-back wit, energy, a pragmatic approach to life's difficulties, and an unshakeable social conscience. ·  Full Details