Read an extract from A System So Magnificent it is Blinding, Svensson’s joyful family saga which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023
Nichola Smalley
Nichola Smalley is a translator of Swedish and Norwegian literature
In 2014, she finished her PhD exploring the use of contemporary urban vernaculars in Swedish and UK rap and literature at UCL.
Her translations range from Jogo Bonito by Henrik Brandão Jönsson, a Swedish book about Brazilian football, to Norwegian superstar Jostein Gaarder’s novel, An Unreliable Man.
Smalley’s translation of Andrzej Tichý’s novel Wretchedness won the 2021 Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize and was shortlisted for the Bernard Shaw Prize that same year. It was also longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2021.
Nichola Smalley’s translation of A System So Magnificent it is Blinding was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023, announced on March 14 2023.
All nominated books
This joyful family saga about free will, forgiveness, and interconnection poses a question: are we free to create our own destinies or are we just part of a system beyond our control?
Translated by Nichola Smalley
Andrzej Tichý paints a delirious portrait of an excluded community of nomads, full of potent fuel and dancing to a different beat
Translated by Nichola Smalley
