In “The Coryphae. A conspiracy novel’ rightly call the Prime Minister Carl Stjärne and the Chief of Police Rolf Utterström, but everyone understands who it is about. What makes her bring up this more than 30-year-old case, now that the investigation has been completed and a man has been singled out as the likely perpetrator? It can and should be discussed, but I dare say that Andersson is not looking to reveal who was actually behind the murder, to use conspiracy lingo. Global horror scenario The novel opens in the present, with the moderately successful journalist Roger Lilja. He is assigned to write an article about the murder of Stjärne, and seeks out Nils Niia, an older fellow who has been active in the debate about what actually happened. Fortunately for Lilja and the rest of us, Niia has recently inherited some top secret papers from a dead friend who was high up in the secret services. Niia knows so much that he can actually operate as an omniscient narrator in the book. Readers can join him behind the scenes. It doesn’t look good there. Intelligence purported to know that Palme – sorry, Stjärne – aimed to get all states to introduce social democracy. The Soviet Union was to be the first state out, and the flirtation with the Soviet Union was already well under way. This project would shake the world order and threaten the Swedish welfare state. Thus the intelligence had to do the job, to save us all. Yes, it is thin. And this is not the core of the conspiracy novel either. PALME BECOME A STAR: In “Koryfeene”, Prime Minister Carl Stjärne stands out unequivocally as a fictional version of Olof Palme (pictured), who was shot and killed on 28 October 1986. Photo: SVT Bild / SVT Bakomhistoria The pot simmers considerably more violently when we gets to know the people who get together to take control after the murder: social democratic politicians, press people, and not least the police investigator. In short: At the top in Sweden there is a gigantic, impenetrable apparatus of power where people are tightly knit together. Out of ideological conviction perhaps, but especially because so many people have something against each other. Something that could send the unfortunate leader out of the position of power if this “something” comes out. These morally highly flexible men, who are inextricably entangled in an anxious community of fate, understand that they must take control of the murder story from the start. Kjelder must realize that it costs money to talk. Critical voices must be silenced. The truth must not come out. They need a “metaphorical killer”, someone who fits into the story they are cooking up. The investigation was clouded from the start. Niia saves nothing. The maneuvers are crazy, and our man who will write the article has no idea what to believe. HIDING THE TRUTH: Riksdag politicians, police and journalists conspire to take control of the narrative after the murder of the Swedish prime minister in “Koryfeene”. Photo: INTS KALNINS / Reuters Lena Andersson’s magazine “Koryfeene” answers who killed Olof Palme, and why the truth has never come out. When I doubt whether that is the point of “Koryfeene”, it is partly because the conspiracy is too improbable, but not least because I have some insight into Lena Andersson’s record. In his last two novels, “Svea’s son” and “Daughter”, Andersson has depicted the social democratic project from a small struggle for justice in the early 20th century to the petrified power apparatus it has become today. The portrayal is naturally marked by the fact that Andersson is a liberal and opposed to a large and active state, something she is clear about both in her regular column in Svenska Dagbladet, and in the non-fiction book “Om falsk och äkta liberalism”. Anyone who skims through her texts will also know that she has great faith in rational thinking. If Lena Andersson is responsible for Nils Niia’s conspiracies, she must have undergone a radical conversion since the last book. She therefore strikes in two directions here: both against the apparatus of power and against the conspirators. But is it a good book? It is always interesting to read Lena Andersson. But where the normal social democrats in the first two novels had human features, this time she is in the power elite where people do bad things around the clock. The lack of nuance is unfortunate enough. But as it is, the people in power also sit down and run spontaneous study circles in ideology and political theory. Despite the perfidious portrait, sharp observations and funny formulations: this time the ideologue Lena Andersson has won over the novelist. I look forward to Lena Andersson seriously reaching our time, where social democracy has a less dominant position than in the 1980s. news reviewer Photo: Gyldendal Title: “Koryfeene” Author: Lena Andersson Translator: Gøril Eldøen Genre: Novel Publisher: Gyldendal Pages: 240 Published: 7 February 2023
ttn-69
“Koryfeene” by Lena Andersson – Reviews and recommendations
