SVAMPKUNGENS SON – THE MUSHROOM KING’S SON
By Marie Hermanson
He grows up in the shadow of his prosperous father – the famous mycologist and womaniser. Powerless, he watches as his father seduces the pretty, female members of the mushroom-picking society while he himself has to make do with the magazine centrefolds that he coaxes away from their staples and pins up on his wall. And when his father marries the beautiful and enticing Madeleine, things become even more complicated. But when the mushroom king’s son, for the first time in his adult life sets out to find his mother on her west-coast island, his life undergoes an almost fairytale-like transformation. Svampkungens son (The Mushroom King’s Son) is a father-son drama that is at once playful and serious, as well as a delightful story about a young man who discovers his true element. This is Marie Hermanson’s most unputdownable novel after Musselstranden (The Clam Beach).
ABOUT THE BOOK
First published by Albert Bonniers Förlag, Sweden, 2007
154 pages
RIGHTS SOLD TO
Norway, Schibsted
Germany, Suhrkamp
The Netherlands, De Geus
Sweden, Albert Bonniers förlag
Sweden, Bonnier Audio
Sweden, Elib AB
REVIEWS
Hermanson writes with the simple, fable-inspired style that has become her trademark in novels such as Värddjuret and Hembiträdet: but at the same time naïvely and ironically, mysteriously, ominously and warmly humoristic, smoothly slipping in between fantasy and reality.
Ann Lingebrant, Helsingborgs Dagblad
Marie Hermanson holds a room of her own in contemporary Swedish literature. In that room it is dusk, the air is clear and there is an atmosphere of anticipation and concern. In there she tells fairy tales for grown-ups.
Ingrid Elam, Expressen
Entertaining novel with dark linings.[…] The story is all the way intriguing and one of the things most worth wile reading are the funny parts about mushrooms and the hilariously made up sex life of the kid, that poor Gunnar.
Nu.nl
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