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by Monika Fagerholm (Author), Bradley Harmon (Translator)
Published to great acclaim in the original Swedish, Who Killed Bambi? weaves together a complex network of causality and consequences as it examines the aftermath of a sexual assault. Fagerholm's indicting, sharp prose leads the reader back and forth through time, abandoning linear narrative. This kaleidoscopic, elliptical approach shatters the facade of contemporary polite society, examining the sinister forces that attempt to maintain and protect the status quo in the years following a violent event that shocks an entire community.
Set in a fictional, affluent suburb of Helsinki, the main narrative follows Gusten Grippe, a successful realtor haunted by his role as one of the four teenage rapists--the only one to report the crime and admit his guilt. When, a decade afterward, an acquaintance plans to make a movie about what happened, Gusten attempts to atone for his past in the face of the community's stoic silence and misguided consideration for reputation. Released at the height of the #MeToo movement and translated into a dozen languages, Who Killed Bambi? remains highly relevant in a world grappling with the ubiquity of sexual violence, toxic masculinity, and gender discrimination.Author Biography
Monika Fagerholm is a prize-winning writer who is regarded as one of Scandinavia's finest literary authors. Three of her other novels have previously been translated into English: The American Girl, The Glitter Scene, and Wonderful Women by the Sea. She was awarded the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize in 2016. She lives in Finland.
Bradley Harmon is a translator and scholar of Nordic and German literature. His translated books include poetry collections by Katarina Frostenson and Lív Maria Róadóttir Jæger and biographies of Avicii and Björn Borg. His translations have appeared in Poetry, Denver Quarterly, Swedish Book Review, and Best Literary Translations 2025, among other publications.
