Maria och Artur

Maria och Artur Maria And Artur

In his latest novel Maria And Artur, Arnald has drawn from his collected experience as both scholar and author in fictionalizing his expert knowledge of Artur Lundkvist and Maria Wine, creating a fascinating novel of artistry and love. Maria And Artur is the story about writer couple Artur Lundkvist and Maria Wine – their meeting, their long life and their writing, but more than anything, about their free and mythical romantic liaison. How high was the price they were forced to pay for going against form and convention?

Maria and Artur bears the subtitle “A Novel of the 20th Century” and is the Swedish love story of the century told in lyrical prose – Jean-Paul Sartre & Simone de Beauvoir in Swedish.

Reviews

  • “A novel to read in one sitting about the free love of Maria And Artur. /…/ Arnald maintains a successful balance between enticing facts and poetic truth while also testing the borders of fiction. /…/ Despite the fact that the splices show, essayistic lucidity, dreamy poetry, and analytical sharpness are forged into a beautiful whole. The result is a book that I read in one sitting.”

    Norrköpings Tidningar, Sweden

  • “A gripping story of love: …not only is it learned, refined, and historical but also modern and actually moving. Just the warmth itself between them, which the skilful Arnald manages to bring to life, touches a modern pessimistic child marked by divorce to the marrow. The rest is just as good.”

    Stockholm City, Sweden

  • “It is as expected a highly fascinating read, not least through the passages where Arnald’s own imagination is given free reign. /…/ Arnald’s way of depicting Maria’s loneliness as a child is done in a model way: concretely and credibly. /…/ It is thus a very alert, versatile and unruly but still an exceptionally well-informed and penetrating biography that Jan Arnald has achieved. So sure, even a literary scholar can without being ashamed gain a large, captivated and grateful reading public.”

    Upsala Nya Tidning, Sweden

  • “A solid text material is by no means enough for a book to be born. In addition, it takes a driving force, power of insight and a capacity to make the material into something personal. Arnald without a doubt possesses all of this. /…/ The result is a very delicate and loving portrayal of two people who chose to live their lives against all convention.”

    Hallands Nyheter, Sweden

  • “Jan Arnald has a lovely emotional intensity in his writing that makes for reading at a stretch.”

    Nerikes Allehanda, Sweden

  • “In his new novel, Jan Arnald writes his way toward the heart, toward the trembling life nerve in the lives of Artur Lundkvist and Maria Wine. /…/ The interesting and truly impressive thing about the novel Maria And Artur is that Jan Arnald truly succeeds in portraying both Maria And Artur from the inside in a credible way. /…/ Jan Arnald has an extensive authorship to date. With Maria And Artur, it is as though all the pieces suddenly manage to fall into place. /…/ Maria And Artur is a solid and convincing novel, full of life and insight.”

    Ystads Allehanda, Sweden

Author
Photo: Sara Arnald Jan Arnald
Published
2006
Genre
  • Literary
Pages
278
Reading material

Swedish edition

Rights sold

Denmark, Modtryk

Germany, Piper

Sweden, Albert Bonniers

More From Jan Arnald