From his debut as a precocious child prodigy in the mid-70s via the enormous breakthrough with Gentlemen in the 80s to today's status as one of our most beloved storytellers, Klas Östergren has a special position among Swedish writers.
Östergren about Östergren portrays the author's life and work in an on-stage conversation with friend and regular publisher Stephen Farran-Lee. The performance shares a name with the conversation book from 2007. Where it chronologically went through Klas Östergren's bibliography, we start here in a series of significant places. The performance is enhanced by music inspired by Klas Östergren's literary world specially written and performed live by Mattias Alkberg. A critically acclaimed artist in his own right whose band The Bear Quartet took its name from Östergren's Gentlemen. A circular conclusion about something.
Childhood's Lilla Essingen depicted in books such as The Phantoms and I en skog av sumak. Hornsgatan, a central location in the epic Gentlemen suite. Gamla stan, setting for several of Östergren's historical novels as well as his own time at the Swedish Academy. Biography and fiction side by side. At the same time, a picture is drawn of the Sweden Östergren portrayed in his writing. It is also a conversation about the craft of writing. About anxiety as a driving force. About early learning the discipline to write every day and for 50 years take on the blank page. Nulla dies sine linea - not a day without a line.
Klas Östergren's most recently published book is the novel Större træght aldig anval (Polaris 2022).
"Talking is one thing, conversing is more difficult. Getting something said is the hardest thing of all. But you have to try, as long as someone is willing to listen.” - Klas Östergren