Istället för spänning: prestige? Den internationella lanseringen av Johanna Hedmans debutroman Trion och förnyelsen av den svenska litteraturexporten

Abstract

This article deals with Swedish author Johanna Hedman’s debut novel Trion, published in 2021. The novel quickly gained attention from international publishers and agents. This surprised the Swedish critics, since Trion represents a genre of literary fiction that is not normally translated from Swedish, literary export from Sweden being highly dependent on crime fiction and children’s books. In this article, it is suggested that publishers and agents took the publication of Hedman’s novel as an opportunity to renew export of literature from Sweden when international interest for Scandinavian crime fiction seemed to be waning.