The Antarctica of Love

The Antarctica of Love is a shocking and beautiful subversion of the 'dead girl' trope. With fierce dignity, the narrator in this elegiac novel refuses to be reduced to murder victim/sex worker/addict; she is a poet, philosopher, and author of her own life story in this haunting portrait of the starkest meanings of love and family. Stridsberg's literary talent left me awestruck -- Kate Reed Petty * author of TRUE STORY *
An elegy to the murdered woman's life, from her point of view . . . [Stridsberg] writes with chilling poise * New York Times *
Stridsberg offers a compassionate and complex portrait of a woman damaged by her past, and of those left behind to mourn her death * Financial Times *
Excellent . . . Linguistically and structurally beautiful, The Antarctica of Love is a an exploration of our place in the world, how fleetingly we occupy it, and how much of a trace we leave * Translating Women *
A deeply moving portrait of a life cut short, free of judgement but rich in insight and compassion . . . Stridsberg's novel is brave, and it couldn't be more relevant * European Literature Network *
A disturbingly beautiful book. Stridsberg writes perhaps the most taut and most beautiful prose in Sweden right now * Expressen *
A powerful story that ripples through time and across generations and social divides . . . with extraordinary empathy and insight * CrimeReads *
A stunning book which paints the portrait of a broken life with honesty and compassion * Kirkus Reviews (starred) *
A ruminative, heartrending novel * Publishers Weekly *
Already with her second novel - The Faculty of Dreams, which was awarded the 2007 Nordic Council Literature Prize - Stridsberg proved that she is among the finest authors of contemporary Nordic literature ... With her latest work, TheAntarctica of Love, Stridsberg has surpassed herself. The Antarctica of Love is a novel that one both rejects and cannot resist. It is brutal and oddly full of light, it is wild and violent, but also full of love and tenderness. * Aftenposten *
A shattering read from one of Scandinavia's truly modern storytellers, in prose that appears both more sophisticated and more accessible than previous works * Klassekampen *
The book has a linguistic abundance that fires up the reader with energy and the conviction that this novel can be one of the best of the year * Adresseavisen *
Gives voice to the unseen . . . A terrible and beautiful novel with unique moral weight. * Vårt Land *
Few writers craft such distinct imagery, in such poetic meanderings, with such beauty and precision, as Stridsberg * Svenska Dagbladet *
The Antarctica of Love is an utterly brilliant novel * Skånska Dagbladet *
Her story becomes inscribed upon our minds, so rich with poetic expressions and prosaic sentences that it is ultimately difficult to comprehend all the horror, since it is wrapped in such powerful words. ... Sara Stridsberg's The Antarctic of Love is this year's most poignant book * LitteraturMagazinet *
The Antarctica of Love is Stridsberg's darkest and most powerful novel to date. Here, there is no romanticizing of marginalization ... Here, it's all intense presence and nerve, up until the moment of death itself * SVT Kulturnyheter *
An interesting experiment in narrative and emotional detachment -- Rónán Hession * Irish Times *
An amazing and almost unbearably precise novel * Dagens Nyheter *
Stridsberg's language bears the unbearable, and provides a soft blanket that leads us into the worst - and beyond * Politiken *