SAGA CAVALLIN

 
 

SAGA CAVALLIN was born in 1997 and works as a freelance journalist for, among others, DN Kultur. She studied at the writer's school at Jakobsbergs Folkhögskola and made her fiction debut in 2021 with the novel GLASRUTAN (THE GLASS SCREEN). Together with Myrna Lorentzson, she runs the book club podcast Forum.

Saga made her non-fiction debut in 2024 with the essay UTGE SIG: OM AUTENTICITETENS VARA OCH VÄRDE (TO POSE: ON THE VALUE AND WORTH OF AUTHENTICITY), published by Norstedts.

Photo: Märta Thisner

Agent Maja Hjelm

 
 

WORKS

TO POSE: ON THE VALUE AND WORTH OF AUTHENTICITY

 

PUBLISHED NORSTEDTS 2024
GENRE Non-fiction/essay
PAGES 201

all RIGHTS available

Genuine and real have become buzzwords. They constantly appear on the front pages of newspapers and are used to sell everything from novels to hip hop and soya milk. They are words that refer back to a particular idea: the idea of authenticity. The elevation of authenticity permeates literature and social media, tourism and branding. But why is it that what is genuine, true and authentic has become the most valuable commodity of our time?

TO POSE is a sharp and eye-opening investigation that uses philosophical and sociological theories and popular culture examples to provide a perspective on the contemporary obsession with authenticity. By looking at Rousseau and Swedish author Carina Rydberg, Kenza Zouiten and Elizabeth Holmes, Saga Cavallin links the fraudster, the influencer, the textile worker and the venture capitalist. It is a depiction of a world in which what we have in common, above all, is to protect our uniqueness, and in which the commercialization of our emotional lives has meant that what we most desire is always out of reach.

 
 

REVIEWS

“Utge sig is written in a sharp prose that delivers an even sharper social analysis. It cuts deeply through the many layers of contemporary manipulation and pretense. Anyone who reads it will look at the world with new eyes.”
- Dagens Nyheter

“Very good essay writing”
- Svenska Dagbladet

“Cavallin is lucid and concrete”
- Expressen

 
 

THE GLASS SCREEN

 

PUBLISHED it-lit 2021
GENRE fiction
PAGES 60

all RIGHTS available

“Sometimes when Patricia has her photo taken, her face looks distorted. The make-up is more like dirt, applied from outside and chafing against the shadows of her nose and the eyes – her cheeks and chin clash with each other. The face is segregated, like Stockholm. Fragmented, broken, hard to love.”

When Patricia learns that Maja, 23, is pregnant, she realises something quite obvious: it is not external conditions that make you a mother. Patricia could carry and give birth to a child herself. Anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances. Even though she's only 21.

THE GLASS SCREEN is a condensed and poignant novel. In nine chapters, it presents a contemporary world as thin, shiny and fragile as an iPhone.