An exciting story about love and loss and hope. Political and poetic, committed and existential. A story about life. About lies. Family. Time. The Swedish author Johannes Anyuru has written a novel that has all this. And more. “Ixelles” is rich and complex. A book about the really big themes, in clear, often poetic language, steadily and precisely translated from Swedish to Norwegian by Håvard Syvertsen. Well done! Hard upbringing Mio and Ruth grew up in Antwerp in Belgium. They come from a poor and tired district, for poor and tired people. The city even lacks a name. He is only called “seventy”, after the postcode. The two teenagers become lovers. Both are children of immigrants. Street smart. Familiar with intoxication, with loss, with violence. But they are also very different. Mio is a tough guy, used to fighting both at home and outside. Ruth performs her own poems in the library. They are in love. Dreaming of a future together. It won’t be like this. Mio dies. He is found shot in the street. Nobody knows who did it. Ruth is only 18 years old, and pregnant with his child. She mourns the loss, but also understands that she has to leave. A strange job offer is the way out. Her chance to start all over again. Johannes Anyuru Photo: Jessica Gow / TT / NTB Swedish poet, author and musician. Born in 1979 in Borås, Sweden. Grow up in Växjö. Has a Swedish mother and a father from Uganda. Debuted in 2003 with the poetry collection “Det är bara gudarna som er nya”. The big breakthrough came with “A storm came from paradise”. It was nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, the August Prize and Sweden’s Radio’s Novel Prize. In 2017, he won the August Prize for the novel “They will drown in their mothers’ tears”. Living a lie Ruth moves to a cool, rich district far from 2070. When her son Em grows up, she tells that Mio died in a car trunk. She says that she herself grew up in the rich district of Ixelles in Brussels, and that Mio’s family is also dead. Everything is a lie. Mio’s parents still live in 2070. Ruth’s job is also based on lies. She works for a company where rich and already powerful people – in secret – can buy the credibility they need to get the people to join them in something the rich want to do, against the will of the people. Lies truer than truth Ruth simply constructs false people, who present the client’s message in the public discourse. The “persons” she creates get ID papers and CVs. A fictional background. Actors live out the characters in the world. A customer is a bit confused. But Ruth argues for the fake woman she has invented: Elsewhere, she and the boss discuss what an author – and a fiction – actually is: This is how the author Johannes Anyuru opens up to thoughts about the really big questions: What can we trust? And who? What is a lie? Or truth, in life and in literature? What does it do to us to be exposed to lies. Or to choose the lie yourself? “The department for nothing” After hesitating for a long time, Ruth takes on a new job assignment. The aim is to get people in 2070 to accept that the district should be demolished to make way for a new road. The new mission makes the questions of lies and truth, origin and security extra acute. Nevertheless, he takes the job. Why? As part of the mission, Ruth goes back to 2070. There she hears a rumor that Mio is not dead after all. When a CD appears with his voice(?) on it, she doesn’t know what to believe. The man on the CD speaks in poetic terms about a mysterious “department for nothing”, far away. There should be room for “people like him”. The son, Em, also begins to ask difficult questions, about the father and about 2070. What now? “Ixelles” has the hook and drive of a detective novel. A thriller. Could it be true that Mio is alive? And will Em find out? Have the two already had contact? Precise and poetic At the same time, “Ixelles” is also a deeply “literary” novel. Complex structure, with constant switching between different narrator voices. Partly highly literary in language, poetic and understated. Some of the narrators know who someone is, others don’t. Some puzzles are solved, but not all. The issues Anyuru raises are also complex. He is preoccupied with violence. Of family ties and growing up, belonging and roots. Write well about parents who try to protect but fail to do so. About outsiders and anger – and about grief that won’t let go. “Ixelles” is as precise as it is poetic, as dreamy as it is concrete. Finely polished, but also raw. Melancholy, with small glimmers of hope and hope. Johannes Anyuru has written a novel that may demand a bit from the reader. But which gives all the more in return. news reports Photo: Press Title: “Ixelles” Author: Johannes Anyuru Publisher: Håvard Syvertsen Publisher: Press Genre: Novel Publication year: 2024 ISBN: 9788232805655 Hi! I am a literary critic at news, with a particular interest in Norwegian and translated fiction. Lately, I’ve been to a reading party with Jonas Hassen Khemiri and his “Sisters”, and a trip to Northern Ireland with Louise Kennedy’s “Transgressions”. Also read what I thought about the historical novels “Xiania” by Lotta Elstad and “Skråpånatta” by Lars Mytting!
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“Ixelles” by Johannes Anyuru – news Culture and entertainment
