1. This book is about one man’s attempt to juggle grief and joy in equal portions.

2. Knife. Scalpel. Same difference.

3. In idle daydreams, we sometimes entertain the most nightmarish scenarios and ask ourselves how we’d measure up in a crisis. How we would cope. This book is a blow by blow account of just such idle thinking made real.

4. I give you… the Radio Dept

5. I have been in hospitals in Poland, France, and America and have never come across the types of doctors in this book. They are informative and open and seem to always have time for the main protagonist. This is either a result of Sweden’s much lauded Healthcare system or a falsehood. I’m willing to go with the former.

6. Given the book’s setting I’d suggest you drive to your local hospital and find a vending machine. Drop in some coins and punch some numbers. Surprise!

7. First aid kit… no not that kind.

8. Tom Malmquist is also a critically acclaimed poet. Here is an article with some thoughts about his work from the late great Montevidayo.

9. The midsummer festival in Sweden is nothing to fuck with ya’ll.

10. What do you call a deer all alone in the woods? Lonely, apparently.

11. This story is told in a straightforward manner with flat unsentimental prose…which serves it well.

12. Here is an interview with the author.

12.5 Buy it here

PS- Picture by Simon Stålenhag @simonstalenhag