The Very Best of Per Nilsson/Absolut Per Nilsson

For you, this book is for you. You who read, you who have read, you who can identify with the characters. You will understand. Here they come, all of them. No, not every single one, but most of them.

Jonathan. Perhaps he is unable to love because he is afraid of being let down. Again. Göran Persson II, who thinks that life could be different. So much richer and better. Mia-Maria. Everything would sort itself out if only the men would grow up, she thinks. Hannah, who can’t help thinking, caring. Andreas. Don’t just talk, he says. Politics is what you do or don’t do. Anton who has entered into a mist, he is even more lost than before… And Zarah. She knows that love is painful, hurts her and leaves scars.

A sort of book-of-conclusions, in which Per Nilsson re-uses characters, ideas and scenes from his previous novels. The meta-novel idea is here too; it’s also about the very writing of the book and the author is a God, not all-powerful but at any rate able to create. Many of Per Nilsson’s readers will certainly have discovered that he lets certain people return in several of his books. He has built a world, and in Absolut Per Nilsson that construction – which has been going on for almost 20 years – is completed. Impressive. Not least for the dialogue, for which he has a perfect ear.

Press voices about The return of Hjärtans Fröjd:
“Read The return of Hjärtans Fröjd for Nilsson’s language, concrete with a cutting edge and amazingly beautiful, for the characterisation – and for the universality of a weird story.”

Dagens Nyheter

“Per Nilsson’s follow-up to his compact love story Hjärtans fröjd (from 1992) fulfils all expectations. People return, meet and change each other’s lives. It is warm, great and strong.”

Göteborgsposten