[ BOOK LIVES ] Vinter by Lars Tunbjörk

Vinter
by Lars Tunbjörk
Steidl
ISBN 978-3865214973

It is common knowledge that Swedes go crazy after the long winter and all they can think about, after months of dark and lonely hibernation, is to head for any place with sunshine. So exactly how drab is the Swedish winter?

Just take a good look at Lars Tunbjörk‘s Vinter.

I have collected quite a few of Tunbjörk’s books and this book on winter is rather ‘painful’ to look at. Compared to I love Boras, a more ‘celebratory’ though cynical look at the town he was born in, Vinter depresses because it is honestly brutal.

But it is also ‘funny’ for the outsiders who can always enjoy watching others in pain via the printed pages.

I can’t help but to admit that each time I flip through the book, I chuckle a little and say, “Thank goodness I don’t live there.”