‘Names that end with ‘son’, spelled with just one ‘s’, they sound American. Easy to pronounce in English. Couldn’t tell you why, but it’s true. A name is important, a marker you should finesse if you can. Ia … is that short for something?’
Kira Josefsson
Kira Josefsson is a writer and literary translator working between Swedish and English
In her translation, Ia Genberg’s The Details was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024, Judith Kiros’s O was a finalist for the Barrios Book in Translation Prize, and Johanna Hedman’s The Trio was on the shortlist for the Bernard Shaw Prize.
She lives in New York City, where she writes on US issues in the Swedish press and organises with the National Writers Union.
Her English language translation of Genberg’s Small Comfort was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.
Author photo © Ben Tousley
The dramatic distinctness of the five stories that make up Small Comfort speaks to the might of Genberg’s imaginative powers, while the intricate threads tying them together are testament to her subtleness as a thinker
The International Booker Prize 2026 judges on Small Comfort
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All nominated books
In exhilarating, provocative prose, Ia Genberg reveals an intimate and powerful celebration of what it means to be human
By Ia Genberg
Translated by Kira Josefsson
Intricately built and wickedly humorous, these five interconnected short stories are all about one thing: money
By Ia Genberg
Translated by Kira Josefsson
