VÄNLIGHETEN – THE KINDNESS
By John Ajvide Lindqvist
A locked, bright yellow shipping container. One morning it shows up in a Swedish small town harbor. No one knows how it got there or what it holds. When the lock is finally cut, something flows out. Something dark that will transform the town and chip away at everyday kindness. Along the way, we follow Max, Siw, Anna, Johan, Marko and Maria – all in their thirties, all dealing with their own problems. But as the town changes, they are brought together in an unexpected way.
Spanning three decades, The Kindness is a grand narrative of friendship and love in a changing world. With this novel, John Ajvide Lindqvist demonstrates that he is not only Sweden’s master of horror, but also one of the great chroniclers of our time.
ABOUT THE BOOK
First published by Ordfront Förlag
RIGHTS SOLD TO
Brazil, Alaúde Editorial Ltda.
Denmark, Modtryk
Finland, Gummerus
Germany, dtv
Italy, Marsilio Editori
Norway, Cappelen Damm
Poland, Zysk
Russia, AST
Spain, Almuzara
World English, Quercus
REVIEWS
“So good that it’s difficult to summarize in a few lines. … Despite its solid 720 pages, it is playfully effortless (but heavy) to get through. It is friendly, terrifying, funny, sad, disgusting, strange, suspenseful and quite amazing. A so-called reading experience. Overall rating: 5 out of 5.”
– BTJ
“Let me say it right away: I have seldom read such a well-structured story. It’s over 700 pages, and held me ceaselessly in its grip. How can a story so enchant? … This is magnificent. Here is a drama on par with Selma Lagerlöf. One can merely congratulate readers … one of the best Ajvide [Lindqvist] has written.”
– Gefle Dagblad
“How delightful to start a new reading year with a great reading experience! Not once in this brick of a novel did I lose interest in the plot or the characters. I plowed through it in four days. … This is simply a terribly good book”
– Bokbox bokblogg
“a book that, despite its size, is not nearly as thick as I wanted it to be. Yes, that’s how much I liked the book. I am hardly unfamiliar with [Ajvide Lindqvist], so I had high expectations going in – and they were fulfilled with flying colors. … the best I have read by John Ajvide Lindqvist. If you like his writing, you will love this novel. If you have a hard time with horror novels, read it anyway, because after all it is mostly about our ability to show a little decent kindness, and we cannot get too much of that.”
– LitteraturMagazinet
“As Ajvide Lindqvist has increasingly devoted himself to subtle plumbing of the human soul, he has become an increasingly distinctive and urgent voice in contemporary literature.”
– Svenska Dagbladet
“The Kindness is a true thriller, a terrible delight to read.”
– Borås Tidning
“This is a novel to read in one sitting”
– Sydsvenskan
“a near-perfect entertainment novel”
– Dagens Nyheter
“Let The Right One In, the extraordinary international bestseller which launched John Ajvide Lindqvist to the English-speaking world was published by Quercus in 2007. Now, six wonderful books later we have The Kindness – Lindqvist’s most ambitious work and the major achievement in this stellar career. It is a novel in which metaphysical threats become terrifying and real, and the abandonment of human kindness is deadly. We aim to publish with a real fanfare on the riverrun list in 2022.”
– Jon Riley, Quercus
BOOKS
Fiction
