KATARINA WENNSTAM

 
 

Katarina Wennstam is one of Sweden's most widely read authors with a background as a crime journalist for SVT, (the Swedish public service television company). As a front figure in the Swedish debate on women's rights, Wennstam has been instrumental in several important legislative changes.

Her books have been loved by readers and literary critics, and her first book, Flickan och skulden, is now considered a cult book. It was nominated for the August Prize for best non-fiction book and awarded the Vilhelm Moberg Scholarship, as well as the Swedish Bar Association's Grand Journalist Prize.

Her new series Sekelskiftesmorden (The turn-of-the-century murders), marks a turning point in Wennstam's writing, without shifting the focus from women's issues. The first book, Dead Women Don't Forgive, was released in the fall of 2023 and the sequel, Dead Man's Woman, was released in the fall of 2024.

Photo: Caroline Roosmark

 
 
 

DEAD WOMEN DON’T FORGIVE

PUBLISHED BOOKMARK 2023
GENRE HISTOricAL SUSPENSE
PAGES 443

RIGHTS SOLD
Danish: Cicero, Gyldendal denmark
FINNISH: GUMMERUS
FILM AND TV: SF STUDIOS

At the end of the 19th century, Stockholm undergoes major changes. There is a high rate of immigration and the city's inhabitants are dying en masse. Diseases are rampant, women are trying to expel unwanted fetuses and there are many accidents.

Four women from different social classes all live in the same building in Södermalm, (the south part of Stockholm). They are brought together by a terrible death in the common courtyard, during the chilly New Year's night between 1895 and 1896. It soon becomes clear that the deceased woman had tried to carry out an illegal abortion.
Dead Women Don't Forgive is a bleak depiction of the harsh conditions faced by women in the late 19th century. With irresistible language and furious drive, Katarina Wennstam depicts a world teeming with maids, immoral women, abusive men, and vivid descriptions of both the city and exquisite costumes. Solid research lies behind Katarina Wennstam's most passionate book project ever.

 
 
 

DEAD MAN’S WOMAN

PUBLISHED BOOKMARK 2024
GENRE HISTORICAL SUSPENSE
PAGES 428

RIGHTS SOLD
Danish: Cicero, Gyldendal denmark
FINNISH: GUMMERUS
FILM AND TV: SF STUDIOS

The second part of Sekelskiftesmorden (The turn-of-the-century murders).
Four women forever bound together by a dark secret.

In the early summer of 1897, companion Fredrika Nilsdotter realizes her dream and opens her own detective agency under a male alias. When the infamous theater director Georg Valentin suddenly plunges to his death from the Katarina elevator, Fredrika realizes that the high-profile murder may be the opportunity she has been waiting for to prove herself. To do this, she needs the help of her confidants in the odd quartet: the widow Olga, the seamstress Hildur and the maid Edit. Soon they find themselves entangled in a dangerous game of chance as they search for answers in a murder story whose plot goes back many years. 

Dead Man's Woman is an eye-opening depiction of life in Stockholm on the threshold of the new century where modern winds blow in from the continent. In a time when women are underage and in the hands of husbands, doctors and male relatives, Katarina Wennstam depicts an emerging friendship between four women from different social classes and their desire for a brighter future.

REVIEWS

“Katarina Wennstam vividly portrays turn-of-the-century Stockholm and the living conditions of different social classes, and it is impossible not to associate it with Per Anders Fogelström's “City of My Dreams” series, although Wennstam's book has a consistent female perspective.” Gunilla Wedding, Skånska dagbladet (SE)

“Katarina Wennstam writes as if through a wide-angle lens. She takes such a broad view of historical Stockholm that it is impossible not to make comparisons with Strindberg and Fogelström. But the comparison is still unfair. Wennstam is her own author. As always, she writes from a woman's perspective, using female eyes to depict and criticize society - as much a male society as a class society - from the bottom up.” Bengt Eriksson, Borås tidning (SE)