The Stronger

Inger Frimansson has written a suspenseful novel with much density for young readers. The Stronger is as much about loneliness as it is about friendship.

 

Jak and Aster arrives to Sweden on a truck bed. The summer night is light and at the refugee center they get food and new clothes.

 

But life at the refugee center comes to an end, and to find your place in every day life in the new country is not anything one can take for granted. Life for the large family in the small apartment is hard and cramped and in school the teacher naggs about the importance of learning Swedish quickly.

 

But it is not how they live or how they do in school that circles like a black cloud above Jak and Aster. It is Keller and his gang – the stronger. They are the ones who stalk and humiliate, the ones who make life like a living hell for Jak and Aster.

 

One day Jak has had enough and stands up against Keller – something that will have horrifying consequences...

 

The Stronger won the Swedish Crime Writer Academy's prize Spårhunden, Best Youth Detective Novel of the Year (2009).

 

202 pages

 

Reviews

"Frimansson places war and fear right among us. This makes a strong and gripping read."

Ystads Allehanda

 

"This book quickly grabs the reader. Even in the descriptive sections with a slow speed, Inger Frimansson manages to turn up the tension. And she does it elegantly, in a way we do not even notice. Partly by altering between different events and time horizons. Inger Frimansson is a master in the art of words and language."

Sydsvenska Dagbladet

 

"The story is so intense, sometimes you want it to slow down, so that you get time to catch your breath."

SvD

 

"A book to be read at a stretch."

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