Reviews

• “A chronicle of this dramatic decade, and a plunge into darkness that hope has yet to illuminate. A requiem for a lost generation.”

• “A phenomenal success.”

• “As a dirge, as a reminder, as a settlement, as rehabilitation, as a declaration of love – and not least, as an utterly vital piece of written history – [Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves] is all that I could wish for.”

• “Beyond the documentary side of the novel, its humor and its sometimes harsh realism bathe the story of Rasmus, Benjamin and their friends in what Shakespeare would have called ‘the milk of human kindness.’”

• “A formidable romantic testimony.”

• “Gardell puts his name on one of the greatest books of the past year.”

• “This book hurts, so be forewarned! /…/ Still, Jonas Gardell has managed to incorporate humor all the way – black humor, of course. There are tears and celebrations till the last page. The books are standout, vital, and give food for thought. I can’t do them justice in this review, just recommend you to read them.”

• “Tough and touching reading.”

• “A beautiful book about the fight to find love.”

• “Cruel and gripping.”

• “A classic within modern Swedish literature, says the publisher. Rightly so, says the reviewer.”

• “Swedish Jonas Gardell’s wondrously sincere trilogy about the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Sweden […] numbers among the best and most personal books published in Scandinavia this decade.”

• “The author describes with precision the fragility of sentient and differing beings, and the difficulty they have in finding their place, even within their own families.”

• “Essential and so useful. Outstanding in many regards, it gives the reader so much more than romance.”

• “Precisely documented history – social and political – and filled with a rage and energy most often expressed in cutthroat humor. /…/ A literary monument dedicated to missing friends, this moving novel is first and foremost an extraordinary testimony to life.”

• “Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves is both a tragic love story and a monument to lovers lost.”

• “True literature – a moving and thought-provoking life story.”

• “[A] well-crafted and lucid piece from a gender-revolutionary time.”

• “I wouldn’t be surprised to see the entire suite of novels receive six out of six stars.”

• “The storytelling is blazing hot all the way through and is carried by a deep and somber commitment. /…/ Humorous and sparkling. /…/ I’m very much looking forward to the next book. /…/ A story to obsess over.”

• “With the help of excellent portraits he illuminates the lonely fight against the sickness, but also against the family’s, and society’s, lacking understanding of their sexual identity.”

• “It’s quite the task to tell the story of the new ‘plague’ just as the threat had become clear and no cure was yet in sight; an author could easily loose themselves in sentimentality, darkness, agitation. Gardell’s complex dramaturgy and unbelievably vivid prose saves the work, steering it towards a compassionate warmth that doesn’t flinch from the tragedies of fate.”

• “A book that must be read.”

• “And so he touches our hearts again, homo and hetero, women and men, young and old. Not primarily because everything is true, but because of Gardell’s ability to bring individual fates to the fore, filling them with joy and pain, triumph and loss, love and sorrow. All those things that are part of life and become all the more sharply defined for the one being excluded.”

• “So powerful, so gripping, and so utterly necessary.”

• “I’m sitting here, wondering if there’s any other way of describing the book other than ‘fantastic’. It is such a beautiful and tender story, that all the same has a darkness to it.”

• “Jonas Gardell writes history as he steps into the silence. He steps into the abandoned halls of memory, filling them with life and dignity.”

• “Jonas Gardell does it brilliantly: With great, infallible balance he walks the taut line between the darkest of tragedies and brightest of hopes for the future, between riotous joy and harrowing sorrow.”

• “Yet, I don’t think we fully grasp the width of the effect that Gardell’s project’s truly had. /…/ Now all that remains is the question of whether we’ve learned anything from history. If we would do something different were a new plague to strike a group so far down on the social ladder. I pray we never find out.”

• “Mandatory reading!”

• “The result is utterly brilliant. /…/ Towards the end of the novel, it rises up like a monument to all the fallen. When Paul’s funeral is described, it’s not just Paul’s, but the funeral of all who were forgotten. Of all those who were made into heterosexuals through the lies of their families, claiming they has suffered from cancer (not AIDS) after they’d died. In an almost magical way, Gardell lends a body to all of these people in the form of his characters, giving them the redress they can only have now, many years later. When their memory rises up and lives on.”

• “Gripping and thought-provoking reading, written by an author at the top of his game.”

• “Gardell’s literary project originates in a wish to write the greater story of a silenced chapter of Swedish (homo) history, a chapter no one might have cared about if it wasn’t for the panicked fear of oneself falling victim. There’s an urgency to this novel, one that’s certainly rare to find in books.”

• “I am impressed and grateful.”

• “A story of importance that many ought to read.”

• “If you only read one book this year, make it Jonas Gardell’s Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves.”

• “Jonas Gardell’s novel has the potential to become a classic for its depiction of eighties’ Stockholm alone. Add to it the homosexual and AIDS perspective, and there’s no longer any room for argument. The story perfectly captures how the gays, only just defiantly beginning to shape their own culture, were struck down by the outbreak of AIDS.”

• “Jonas Gardell has written an absolutely, utterly wonderful romance about Rasmus and Benjamin and the family which comes into being when the original one can’t cope. It’s also a declaration of love for his friends, the culture and gayness before, during and after the first AIDS epidemic. It is nigh on perfect.”

• “Get your tissues ready and brace yourself.”

• “A fiery contemporary drama. /…/ This is a story about a piece of contemporary history that mustn’t be forgotten.”

• “A lesson in history like no other.”

• “Already now, I have a sense that Gardell is writing his way into Swedish literary history. /…/ Awed, I conclude that Jonas Gardell is probably the only individual who could tell the story of our youngest and most fragile of brothers, and the tragedy which struck them just as they’d been granted freedom of life.”

• “Jonas Gardell’s magnum opus.”

• “This is one of the most important depictions there are of contemporary society, posing some difficult questions – as the best books do.”

• “Jonas Gardell scathingly addresses medical professionals and the Minister of Social Affairs, whom he claims let early cases unnecessarily suffer and die. /…/ With his trilogy, [Gardell] saves an important part of our society’s development from silence, and thereby from going forgotten. That is why Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves is essential.”

• “A grandiose feat.”

• “One of the most powerful and gripping works Jonas Gardell has ever written. /…/ It’s sad. It’s awful. It’s beautiful. And it’s mercilessly cruel.”