The Antarctica of Love
Sara Stridsberg, Deborah Bragan-Turner (translation)They say you die three times. The first time for me was when my heart stopped beating beneath his hands by the lake, & the second was when what was left of me was lowered into the ground in front of Ivan & Raksha at Bromma Church. The third time will be the last time my name is spoken on earth.
She was a neglected child, an unreliable mother, a sex worker, a drug user—and then, like so many, a nameless victim of a violent crime. But first she was a human being, a full, complicated person, & she insists that we know her fully as she tells her story from beyond the grave. We witness her short life, the harrowing murder that ended it, & her grief over the loved ones she has left behind. We see her parents struggle with guilt & loss. We watch her children grow up in adopted families & patch together imperfect lives. We feel her dreams, fears, & passions. And still we will never know her name.
A heartrending novel of life after death, Sara Stridsberg’s The Antarctica of Love is an unflinching testament of a woman on the margins, a tale of family lost & found, a report of a murder in the voice of the victim, & a story that brims with unexpected tenderness & hope.
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Sara Stridsberg is an internationally acclaimed writer & playwright whose work has been translated into more than 25 languages. A former member of the Swedish Academy, she is a leading feminist & artist in her native Sweden & around the world. Her novel Valerie: or, The Faculty of Dreams received the Nordic Council Literature Prize & was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.