Karolina Ramqvist receives the Swedish Radio’s novel Prize

She had to wait for her seventh novel to be August nominated, and now Karolina Ramqvist is awarded Sweden’s Radio’s novel award for the same book.

– It feels so honored, I was called by the listener jury and very surprised on a Saturday afternoon, it was nice, she says.

Getting a prize for this particular book « Fammer something » for Karolina Ramqvist. Just like the debut « More Fire » from 2002, it is about a love relationship, and takes place in Jamaica, where Karolina Ramqvist lived from and for five years. Now she felt that she had written enough books to return.

– It was a freedom that I took. You always feel as a writer that you have repeated yourself, you have pictures and themes that come back. This was a little more flagrant, she says.

The most common The reader reaction to the book has been that readers feel that they « are there ». Promoting the environment was exactly what Karolina Ramqvist was aiming for. She wanted to figure out how the traces of colonialism are everywhere in Jamaica, in the language and everyday life.

– What was difficult for me was to portray it in this organic way.

The love relationship is also about a balance of power, where the woman from Europe may move freely while the same does not apply to the man from Jamaica. At the same time, they devote themselves to the same power struggle as all love couples, Karolina Ramqvist emphasizes.

She is now At an early stage with a novel about something new – but so far there are just notes.

According to Karolina Ramqvist, the reactions to the novel also show how Sweden has changed. Now there is a greater understanding that colonialism also applies to us.

-When I wrote about this in the 90s, it was considered quite accident to write about racism.