Reviews

• “What Tichý does refreshingly differently from our own authors is that he lets his experiments with form shape a story. It is never only about the sufferings of Ajsa, Mink, Edyta, Violeta, and the other residents of Malmö. It is always also about the way suffering becomes literature. While Tichý cross-cuts between narratives, while he shouts and whispers, cries and laments, and even occasionally laughs—yes, while he above all lets a wealth of voices other than his own be heard—we see a work take shape. ”

• “ Andrzej Tichý’s novel about a Sweden in dissolution challenges both the conventional novel form and the belief that social reforms are of any use whatsoever. /…/ Book of Events is a rejection of the notion of a central perspective. This is the literary form of social disintegration. This is literature that, also stylistically, seeks to reveal the collapse of social democratic Sweden. ”

• “Andrzej Tichý has written a polyphonic masterpiece about the Europe of the displaced. Andrzej Tichý has written a genre-indifferent, demanding, and life-giving novel that finds hope where none seems to exist. /…/ Throughout the novel, mystics such as Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhart wander in quotations. Porete, the Beguine who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1310, conceived of God’s remoteness as an absolute nearness. Tichý, too, can conceive of emptiness as fullness. This gives the book and his authorship the same mischievous gleam as Holbein’s paintings—for it takes a tough humor and approach to life to truly appreciate that we are all equal in death. /…/ Book of Events is a novel that seeks the novel as a form of cognition. In this lies part of its hopefulness: in the attempt against all odds, in the movement through space and time, across planes of abstraction, between realism and unreality, from one word to the next. /…/ With this novel, Tichý also succeeds in showing how the social housing projects of the global North constitute the site of an utterly central modern European narrative—if not the central one. A contemporary story not about endless growth and freedom of movement, but about endless flight and persecution. ”

• “Theoretical discussions are interspersed with masterful narrative prose, written with a keen ear for colloquial speech and an unpretentiousness /../ This time, he hasn’t written a perfect novel. Book of Events is something much better than that.”

• “The novel constantly shifts between different perspectives and rhythms through the sometimes very short and sometimes longer prose pieces. Every page is an opportunity to be transported. /…/ The reading is a wonderful and exhilarating experience.”

• “Book of Events is an eye-opener, in the same vein as [Tichý’s] previous works: a flow of voices about racism, patriarchy, capitalism; scenes that sometimes ooze with violence and pure evil. /…/ Tichý is one of our foremost satirists. A Swedish response to the delightfully unpredictable Michel Houellebecq.”

• “It is impossible not to be moved by the accusing power of Andrzej Tichý. Like Job in the Bible facing all trials, his text gropes for an earthly meaning with what is happening. The last thirty pages of the novel are magnificent in their mocking despair and articulate hatred towards the compliant middle class and today’s dangerous nationalist reactionaries.”

• “I don’t know how Tichý manages not to get stuck, but I hope he continues to be a writer of transformation. /…/ Andrzej Tichý primarily pays attention to people without voices; in his texts, they are allowed to live their experiences, to have a voice. /…/ Tichý is as much a master at depicting humanity’s misery as he is at capturing human presence. /…/ With Book of Events, Andrzej Tichý shows that there is a radical potential and beauty in it as well.”

• “It is fantastically rich. Triumphant. /…/ Andrzej Tichý’s new novel is a dark and majestic manifesto about our moment on Earth.”

• “Some [texts] belong to the best that is written in Swedish today. Together they create an overwhelming effect that a more sparingly crafted novel with just the highlights would not come close to. /…/ At one point, Tichý writes about the fusion of beauty and terror in free jazz, and in doing so, says something apt about his own novel. Similar to a formless avant-garde jazz piece filled with dissonant piano chords and a fractured saxophone solo that just goes on and on, Book of Events is a work one can lose oneself in – only to emerge cleansed and strengthened on the other side.”

• “[Tichý] manages to vary in style and form from work to work, which is yet another reason why he has been abundantly praised and awarded over the years. /…/ Fragments are the foundation of his entire body of work. Virtually all of his books consist of shards, fragments, remnants. A multitude of voices. /…/ Is [Book of Events] worth the effort? No doubt. It’s literature, it’s serious, and no one has said it should be easy.”

• “When it says Andrzej Tichý on the cover, the expectations are naturally sky-high; he is one of the absolute best in Swedish fiction right now /…/ this is something literally remarkable, worthy of any accolades, probably the best I’ve read in new Swedish fiction in a long time. /…/ (it is) impossible to imagine any work of fiction that could compete with this for the position of winner of the August Prize 2024.”

• “A dizzying masterpiece, and sharp contemporary realism.  ”

• “There is humor and satire here that is magnificent. /../ But it also touches deeply. It arouses interest and disgust alternately. It is well worth the effort to embark on this novel. Book of Events does something to the reader.”

• “It is impossible to read Book of Events without being deeply moved. He slugs fiercely like a boxer, whose punches tend to constantly hit me in the tender spot. There are sharp tensions throughout the novel, where Tichý seems completely obsessed with the possibilities of imagination. /…/ He gives us an exquisite notion of the possibilities of language and literature. /…/ Yet Tichý is by no means difficult to read, his language is factual and precise. /…/ I am fascinated by the immense power and relentless tragedy of this narrative – or narratives. This is an immense tour de force and very impressive, a uniquely readable story that both entices and scares.”

• “Book of Events is systemic criticism on speed, a long and drawn-out danse macabre where the dead reader is reminded not only of the individual’s, but of the entire society’s fate.”

• “In the middle of it all, there’s a talented author playing with his characters. /…/ Book of Events is a bewildering experience that differs from the broad masses of contemporary literature.  ”

• “Geographically, the story gravitates around the Lindängen district in Malmö, but Tichý has written a European novel, filled with fragments of stories from the continent’s many backstreets.”