Stockholm II: Children of Their City (Stockholm Series, Vol. 2))

Per Anders Fogelstroms Stockholm Series is a quintet of novels about the intertwined stories of a city and of a family; this second volume, Children of Their City, focuses on the experiences and diverging destinies of the children of Henning Nilsson, the principal character of its predecessor, City of My Dreams. The research behind and within Fogelstroms series is prodigiously detailed: he gives us meticulous descriptions of landscapes, weather, rooms, streets, factories, cafes, bars, and emerging landmarks; he knows and understands the historical events, issues, politics of the period 1880-1900 in this second volume, which of them were remote from the working classes, and which were immediate. He tells his stories without contrivance; when there are life-changing events, they erupt into a context of daily life that he conveys no less compellingly. He can show us the clothes his characters are wearing, tell us how these people smell, describe the effect of alcohol and toil on their bodies. Most of all he understands their values, their ideals, their emotions, their human integrity; he admires their enduring strengths, and views their weaknesses with compassion. Jennifer Brown Baverstams skillful translation is at once transparent and rooted, like its source. The author, Per Anders Fogelstrom, is one of the most widely read authors in Sweden today. City of My Dreams, the first book in his five-volume Stockholm Series, broke the record for bestsellers. A compelling storyteller known for his narrative sweep, his acute characterization and the poetic qualities of his prose, Fogelstrom was highly acclaimed even before he wrote the Stockholm Series. Ingmar Bergman made one of Fogelstroms earlier novels, Summer with Monika, into a film that is now a Bergman classic. Fogelstrom has remained a favorite in Swedish literature among readers of all ages, and he continues to be greatly loved and respected as a chronicler of his people. He died June 20, 1998, two days before the unveiling of a statue of him at the entrance to the hall where the Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm.