The Smile of Midsummer Night

Lars Gustafsson (1936-2016) was one of Sweden's most important authors. The novelist, poet and philosopher lived and taught abroad for a long time, including at the University of Texas in Austin. He also spent several research stays in Berlin, Bielefeld and Tübingen. His work has been translated into numerous languages and has won many awards; in 2009 he received the Goethe Medal, and in 2015 he was awarded the Thomas Mann Prize. His most recent publications with Hanser were Der Dekan (novel, 2004), Risse in der Mauer (Five Novels, 2006), Die Sonntage des amerikanischen Mädchens (A Verse Narrative, 2008), Frau Sorgedahls schöne weiße Arme (novel, 2009), Alles, was man braucht. A Handbook for Life (with Agneta Blomqvist, 2010), The Smile of Midsummer Night. Pictures from Sweden (with Agneta Blomqvist, 2013), The Man on the Blue Bicycle (novel, 2013), the poetry collection The Fire and the Daughters (2014), Doctor Water's Recipe (novel, 2016) and Etudes for an Old Typewriter (poems, 2019). Agneta Blomqvist, née Ylander, was born in 1942. She was a teacher of religion and literature and is co-author of a literary encyclopaedia. Verena Reichel, born in 1945, has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, most recently the Johann Heinrich Voß Prize. She has translated Ingmar Bergman, Katarina Frostensen, Lars Gustafsson, Henning Mankell, Anna-Karin Palm, Hjalmar Söderberg and Märta Tikkanen, among others.