Collected Works: A Novel: 'A wry bestseller that reads like the effortlessly chic European cousin of Fleishman is in Trouble' (Telegraph)

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det nu den kommer? Den andra Renässansen. Där litteraturen och bildningen återfår sin betydelse och där frankofili och fördjupningskurser i humaniora får upprättelse. Klart att det skulle finnas en Julian Morrow-referens, förresten. The present-day scenes move towards and then include two major events that look to the past, the anniversary-celebration of the publishing house and a major museum retrospective of Gustav's work. That was many years ago now, during a period when he’d spent a lot of time with a fairly pleasant graphic designer. She kept dragging him to open houses, possibly to demonstrate her independence. “I’ve been thinking about buying a flat,” she’d say, and Martin could never figure out whether she was trying to communicate something else. Either way, there was always something wrong with the flats they went to see. One was on the ground floor, one had a dark-green kitchen. Too expensive, too small, too new. While she talked to estate agents about pipes and balconies, Martin strolled around other people’s homes, staged to make them look like someone-lives-here-but-not-quite, amusing himself by trying to identify the algorithms of the open house. There were always pots of fresh herbs with the price tag still on in the kitchens. Certain kinds of cushions had always been placed just so on the sofas. A tealight always burned on the bathroom sink.

A] sweeping and complex drama of family, art, and sacrifice . . . Readers will be captivated." — Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewSandgren hooks the reader with an absorbing, multilayered plot that shifts between past and present, building slowly towards the emotional and narrative mystery at its heart." In prachtig proza - slechts af en toe ontsierd door de al te Noord-Nederlandse vertaling (godsamme, wij taaien hier niet af, wij gaan, net als de Zweden vermoed ik, gewoon naar huis) - vertelt Lydia Sandgren hoe de vijftigjarige uitgever Martin Berg op de woonkamervloer terecht is gekomen, met stapels papier om zich heen. This kind of self-centredness is hardly the exception in Collected Works, which pulls no punches when it comes to skewering the preening, posturing, down-punching Swedish intellectual elite. (...) Wittgenstein is just one of many philosophers and artists invoked, but the author doesn’t allow big ideas to overburden the plot: explosive revelations arrive with a slap whenever things begin to drag. Schrödinger also appears, and the novel’s interest in impish paradoxicality even attains a formal expression: this is a book that manages to be both far too long and, somehow, pretty much exactly the right length." - David Annand, Times Literary Supplement Compelling, tense and moving – I loved this smart and subtle exploration of modern motherhood and womanhood.” Collected Works is a dramturgical masterpiece and as groundbreaking as any Donna Tartt novel. (…) If I’m to make further comparisons I have to bring out phenomenal storytellers like Klas Östergren and Kjell Westö.”

Part bildungsroman, part psychological mystery and part family saga, Collected Works largely delivers on its grand ambition. Sandgren is great on detail, whether it’s descriptions of her characters’ ­various apartments and routines, student gatherings, exhibitions or publishing parties. The novel has the feel of one of Gustav’s mag­nificent oils; layer upon layer of careful brush strokes and colour that amount to something close to photorealism. (You could practically use Collected Works to map your way round Gothenburg’s bars and restaurants.) Sandgren has a sly eye for ­comedy, too, especially in her portrait of Martin as an earnest young writer. “Kneading sensory impressions into words,” he scribbles in his notebook in a Paris café, “proving, baking. Was it good imagery or not?” he wonders. “It made him want to eat a baguette.” Poised at the intersection of life and art, reality and imagination, [ Collected Works] blends the thrill of mystery with the curiosity and depth of philosophical inquiry." — The New Yorker The Swedish debut author Lydia Sandgren has written a highly recommended novel, which is as smart as a funny and perfect parody on the sagacious. It is impactful, fundamentally captivating and begs to be read.” The novel has the feel of one of Gustav’s mag­nificent oils; layer upon layer of careful brush strokes and colour that amount to something close to photorealism. […] Sandgren has a sly eye for ­comedy […] A novel to savour” There is also a book that Martin gives Rakel, which he asks her to prepare a readers report on, so that he can decide whether or not he wants to buy the Swedish rights for it.

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Clues that her disappearance isn't as complete as Martin has long believed do crop up from early on, not least in the form of Ein Jahr der Liebe -- but even these lead more to more questions than satisfying answers. Collected Works] has flavours of the realism of her countryman, Karl Ove Knausgard, more than a hint of emotional American big hitters like Jeffrey Eugenides or Jonathan Franzen, and something of the twists and turns of a chronicle like War and Peace." Sandgren’s book’s definitely fluid and well-crafted, although her style is a little too conventional for me. As an author she’s been compared to Knausgaard and, like him, her writing is incredibly detailed, here she meticulously recreates the literary and artistic subculture of her native Gothenburg from the 1970s, and the height of punk, onwards. But for me that was a mixed blessing, there were a number of points where the detail threatens to overwhelm the story itself. The numerous descriptions of the interiors of the characters’ various homes, the parties they attend, the artists and writers they revere, the films they watch, take up a great deal of space, submerging any underlying plot and sometimes impeding any clear sense of its progression. Along the way Sandgren pauses to explore issues of communication, the nature of bonds between lovers or friends, generational divides, lost dreams, and broader cultural and social shifts. Admittedly I found a lot of her material fascinating - although her characters sometimes tipped towards cliché - but at the same time I found myself longing for a more brutal edit. So, for me, this is extremely promising rather than entirely satisfying. However, for readers who enjoy lengthy, immersive, character-driven pieces – or Knausgaard - it may well be very appealing. Translated by Agnes Broome. Rakel, too, in particular, is given a significant role, and along with Gustav there's quite good breadth to the novel.

So who was Cecilia? Martin's eccentric wife, Gustav's enigmatic muse, an absent mother - a woman who was perhaps only true to herself. When Martin's daughter Rakel stumbles across a clue about what happened to her mother, she becomes determined to fill in the gaps in her family's story. But she can't escape the simple question at the heart of it How can anyone leave someone they love? Door de breedvoerigheid worden de personages uit het boek echte mensen die je erg goed leert kennen. De levendigheid wordt gegarandeerd door de lichte en tegelijkertijd pittige dialogen, en de boeiende beschouwingen over literatuur, kunst, filosofie, de psychologie van de mens, enz. De vraag die het boek overkoepelt en in grote mate bij elkaar houdt, is of de schoonheid van literatuur en kunst voldoende de alledaagsheid van het leven kan verbreken en voldoende zin kan geven. Heel wat beschrijvingen zijn ook humoristisch en brengen een glimlach rond je lippen.With her Collected Works, the author has cemented her love for literature – and we hope she does it again.” Collected Works recognises that sometimes, even when a great body of material is available, some things remain unknowable and some people stay silent. An artist or writer’s collected works might appear to amount to a life, but they won’t ever tell the whole story. The following is from Lydia Sandgren's debut novel Collected Works . Sandgren is a trained psychologist and lives in Gothenburg, Sweden. Like Martin's own 'collected works' there's an intentionally fragmented and unfinished feel to Collected Works -- reflecting life itself, after all, as it does not usually proceed or unwind in the neatest and most predictable way.

No, Martin told himself. It never was. He shook his legs one at a time to regain control over them. As soon as the woman turned around, any similarity would be gone. Look, now she’s moving . . .A long novel is always a supremely confident move by any writer, not least a first-time one. Sandgren spent a decade working on the book outside her day job as a psychologist and it shows. Every sentence has been constructed with immense care. Every scene has been honed and polished until it sings. There is not a word that hasn’t been carefully considered before its inclusion, then reconsidered with each redrafting. A witty, toothy, family saga, unashamedly intellectual . . . that, like youth, seems to have it all—energy, aspiration, and self-delusion.”— Catherine Taylor, Financial Times One thing I wouldn’t call this book, though, is propulsive. It proceeds at a leisurely, unhurried – some might even say self-indulgent – pace. It’s a novel to savour, not to tear through, and for this reason alone, I can’t honestly say that I loved it. Scene after scene draws to a close just when it felt as though an ­integral moment was approaching, which can be frustrating – but it’s also rather fitting, since Sandgren faithfully replicates this on a macro level, too. Is Collected Works’ immense length justified? Yes. Could it have been shorter? Also, yes. Will Collected Works help to restore the literary tradition of the long novel? Very possibly.