Marit Kapla grew up in Osebol in the 1970s. She has since served as a Creative Director for the Gothenburg Film Festival, and now works as one of two editors at the Swedish cultural magazine Ord & Bild. Osebol, her first book, was awarded Sweden's prestigious August Prize in 2019.
It is an unlikely subject for a bestseller. Yet in Sweden, the
voices that have come from this ordinary little village have become
like an existential meditation on what it is to be alive, to be
human, creatures living in time while the river runs on and
wolves howl in the woods ... Its specificity allows it to be
universal. ... Garrulous, taciturn, gossipy, warm-hearted,
reserved or matter-of-fact, a character speaks and then they slip
quietly away ... we listen to them like something caught on the
wind ... Why is this so moving and so strangely beckoning? I
think precisely because Osebol bears witness to ordinary
lives. It gives us, unmediated, the voices of people who are
usually unheard and invites us to pay attention to small things.
It's also a book ... about the many meanings of home ... what it is
to put down roots and belong ... Compelling -- Nicci Gerrard
* Observer *
Transporting ... It is particular in its focus on one place
... and universal in its reminders that nothing stays the same.
You feel as though you're in among them -- Michael Kerr *
Sunday Telegraph (Books of the Year) *
A fugue in many voices ... Osebol comes to life as the book
progresses, like a dusty mosaic splashed with water ... [In] sudden
shifts of tone, the book catches the rhythm of life itself
... Osebol is a magnificent success; it is hard to imagine it
better, or even different - it exists on its own terms. Kapla is a
magician. How can she be called 'the author' when not a word is
hers? But it was she who crafted it, weighing themes and balancing
light and shade ... The translator Peter Graves has miraculously
maintained the original rhythm - or perhaps he has smelted Swedish
phrases into English and forged a new one ... The book conjures
the Welsh notion of hiraeth, that soul-deep longing for the
landscape of home ... mesmerizing ... Osebol is a song of
the ages -- Sara Wheeler * TLS *
Osebol is a kind of simple, pared-back and down-to-earth
masterpiece. I suspect that centuries from now it will be
read and loved for the glimpse it gives into the lives of
"ordinary" people in this moment in time. There aren't many
books I am jealous of, and wish I had written ... but I really wish
I had written this. I hope a lot of people read it and
understand just how brilliant it is-- James Rebanks, author of
English Pastoral
Osebol is a fascinating and revealing immersion in
another culture and landscape. I was riveted by these life
stories of young and old, especially the accounts of those who
remember how things used to be - of picking berries in the forest
and sharing the potato harvest. A wonderful read -- Lydia
Davis, author of Essays and Essays Two
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