As Leena and her family find a new flat, everything seems to be looking up. But her parents, Finnish migrant workers, are poor. They drink. And the social housing projects are disparagingly referred to as »pig sties«. Leena starts to wish she was somewhere far away. But where is her place in this world?
This best-selling debut novel is insightful and sensitive in describing child poverty in an affluent society, in the middle of Ystad (Sweden), where we only know Kurt Wallander to solve his cases. Its relevance as an explosive issue reaches far beyond Sweden and the 1960s and 1970s. Susanna Alakoski, born in 1962 in Vasa, Finland, grew up in the southern Swedish town of Ystad, the setting of her first novel. She currently lives in Stockholm, writes for Swedish newspapers, and is politically active regarding women‘s issues. BEYOND was honored as best Swedish novel of the year 2006 and was filmed in 2010 with star cast. Following the lecture the film will be shown in Volksbühne, Großes Haus.
