Amanda Svensson was born in 1987, and grew up in Malmö, Sweden. She started writing at a young age, and her first novel - Hey Dolly - was published in 2008.

Svensson studied creative writing and has translated books by Ali Smith, Tessa Hadley, and Kristen Roupenian. A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding was awarded the Per Olov Enquist Literary Prize and Svenska Dagbladet’s Literature Prize. It was also shortlisted for Tidningen Vi’s Literature Prize. 

Amanda Svensson’s novel A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023, announced on March 14 2023.

Amanda Svensson

Amanda Svensson’s raucous, sprawling debut takes on the enigmas of our origins, riddles of human consciousness and animal cognition, doomsday cults, and the most bedevilling of mysteries – the minds and choices of our closest intimates.

— The International Booker Prize 2023 panel of judges on 'A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding'

All nominated books

A System So Magnificent it is Blinding