Narrative
Snobs' Island
Brändövägen 8, Brändö, tel. 35
Henrik Tikkanen · 1975
Synopsis
The address in the title is that of the childhood home, in Brändö, the suburban island of Helsinki where the Swedish-speaking bourgeoisie lived. The book announces itself from the outset as a terrible story of sudden deaths, ruin, debauchery and strong drink, and the narrator, who greatly resembles the author, returns anecdote by anecdote to his family and his milieu, which he paints in fierce satire, sparing no one.
Context
Published in the autumn of 1975, the book opened the autobiographical trilogy of addresses, continued in 1976 and 1977, and made an author previously regarded as a journalist recognised as a writer. This bitter satire, all the more striking for being very autobiographical, has been translated into German and into English, under the title Snobs' Island, by Mary Sandbach. The last volume of the trilogy told of the author's marriage, and his wife replied to it afterwards. There is no French edition of this title.
Who it is for
A short narrative, in Swedish, readable in English. The reader needs to know what the Swedish-speaking bourgeoisie of Helsinki was, a language minority and an elite at once.
Prizes and reception
The book of recognition, crowned with the State prize, and the beginning of the autobiographical sequel that brought his breakthrough.