Marit Kapla Interviewed by Gwenan Edwards

Winner of Sweden’s top literary award Marit Kapla talks about her bestselling book that gave voice to the lives of people in the tiny village where she grew up.

Osebol is a village set in the dense forest of northern Värmland. Its inhabitants have dwindled to little more than 40 as a result of automation in the lumber industry and a steady drift to cities. Kapla interviewed almost the entire population for her book, which turned into a publishing phenomenon in Sweden. She spoke to those who had inherited their farms over generations and new arrivals who had come from near and far to live in the village. It is a story of griefs and joys, resentments and pleasures, enmities and loves, and memories spanning a century of progress and upheaval.

Kapla grew up in Osebol in the 1970s. She is a former creative director of Gothenburg Film Festival and is now an editor at the Swedish cultural magazine Ord and Bild. Osebol won the 2019 August Prize – Sweden’s most prestigious literary award.

This event is part of the festival’s programme of Swedish literature and culture.