Per Olov Enquist

The author of novels, plays, film screenplays and works of journalistic and critical nature. As a playwright he has achieved success, among others, on Broadway, and Polish stagings of his play Rain Snakes (Z życia glist) have been of historic importance for the Polish theatre. He is a writer who puts a great emphasis on documents and evidence: his novels are overflowing with quotations from diaries or notes, they are hybridised to the point of madness. In this he resembles Truman Capote and Norman Mailer. The majority of Enquist’s works concern Sweden. He belongs among the most awarded (16 important awards, including the August Award, which he won twice, the first time for The Book about Blanche and Marie) and most widely-read writers in his country. He is also one of the most often translated Swedish writers. He has received the following prestigious awards: the Independent Fiction Prize (2003) and the German award Corine (2005). He studied the history of literature at Uppsala University and he has worked as a literary and theatrical critic in the press and television for many years. His literary debut was in the early 1960s; he deals with psychological issues in his works and willingly experiments with form. The breakthrough in his literary career proved to be the novel The Magnetist’s Fifth Winter – it has been recognised by critics and translated into many languages.