'Nordic Noir' pioneer Maj Sjowall dead at 84
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Sunday, October 6, 2024


'Nordic Noir' pioneer Maj Sjowall dead at 84
This picture taken on September 15, 2015, shows Swedish crime author Maj Sjowall in Malmo, Sweden. Maj Sjowall, one half of a Swedish crime-writing couple credited with inventing "Nordic Noir", has died aged 84, her publisher said on Wednesday. Johan NILSSON / TT NEWS AGENCY / AFP.

by Johannes Ledel



STOCKHOLM (AFP).- Maj Sjowall, one half of a Swedish crime-writing couple credited with inventing "Nordic Noir", has died aged 84, her publisher said on Wednesday.

Sjowall, a pioneer of gritty realism and an inspiration to modern crime writers, "passed away today after an extended period of illness," Ann-Marie Skarp, head of publisher Piratforlaget, told AFP.

With her partner Per Wahloo, who died in 1975, Sjowall penned a 10-book series centred on the dour, middle-aged and decidedly unheroic Martin Beck and his team of detectives in Stockholm's National Homicide Bureau.

Books like "Roseanna", "The Laughing Policeman" and "The Abominable Man," featured tightly structured plots packed with realistic details, charting the unglamourous slog and grind of police work.

"Her and Per Wahloo's 10 novels about Martin Beck... will become classics and have inspired, I dare say, all now living authors of crime novels," Skarp said.

Nordic Noir
The duo also penned the series decades before the likes of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson made the genre of "Nordic Noir" into a worldwide hit.

"They broke with the previous trends in crime fiction," Henning Mankell wrote in an introduction to the 2006 English edition of "Roseanna". His own Inspector Kurt Wallander series would owe much to Beck three decades later.

Sjowall was "the giant on whose shoulders the titans of modern Scandi crime fiction stand," Britain's Daily Telegraph wrote in 2015, in a story headlined "The couple who invented Nordic Noir".

Both committed Marxists, they went beyond crime fiction, breaking new ground by carrying out a forensic examination of the failings of Swedish society. The modern themes they tackled included paedophilia, serial killers, the sex industry and suicide.

"Through the eyes of Martin Beck and his colleagues, they held a mirror up to Swedish society at a time when the ideals of the welfare state were beginning to buckle under the realities of everyday life," Scottish crime writer Val McDermid wrote in the introduction to the 2006 edition of "The Man Who Went Up In Smoke".

Late night writing sessions
Born September 25, 1935 in Stockholm, Sjowall studied journalism and graphics. She worked as a translator, and art director, and as journalist for Swedish magazines and newspapers.

It was through her work that she met Wahloo, a successful political journalist, in 1961. The two quickly became a couple and had two sons.

Then they decided to launch the Martin Beck series.

After dinner and having put their sons to bed, they would sit opposite each other and write through the night, a chapter each.

"We worked a lot with the style," she explained to The Guardian newspaper in 2009. "We wanted to find a style which was not personally his, or not personally mine, but a style that was good for the books."

Before actually writing, the couple carefully planned their plots, travelling, taking hundreds of photographs, meeting people and drawing maps, Sjowall explained in a Q&A in the first book "Roseanna".

After Wahloo's death from cancer aged 48 in 1975 -- weeks after the last book in the series, "The Terrorists", was published -- she continued working as a translator.

She also collaborated on "The Woman Who Resembled Greta Garbo" with Dutch crime writer Tomas Ross in 1990.

The Martin Beck books have been translated into 40 languages, according to news agency TT, and served as the source material for dozens of movies.

© Agence France-Presse










Today's News

April 30, 2020

ARTBnk's New Standard for Fine Art Valuation

China to reopen Forbidden City after three-month closure

Sotheby's to hold vintage barware auction commemorating the 100th anniversary of Prohibition

Bonhams BLUE auction raises over £400,000 for NHS Covid-19 appeal

Tina Girouard, experimental artist in 1970s SoHo, dies at 73

Silver dealer Koopman Rare Art presents online catalogue of antique silver candlesticks and candelabra

Globally acclaimed Indian actor Irrfan Khan dies at 53: publicist

Vietnam draws on propaganda artists in battle against virus

Milena Jelinek, screenwriter and educator, dies at 84

UNC Greensboro announces new Director for Weatherspoon Art Museum

'Nordic Noir' pioneer Maj Sjowall dead at 84

Australia marks 250th anniversary of Cook landing in muted fashion

National Museum of Women in the Arts nominated for Best Social Media Account in 24th Annual Webby Awards

Gardner Museum launches new blog, Inside the Collection, to share hidden treasures, stories

Massive circus side show collection brings $37,500 in Holabird's Big Tent auction

Costumes, masks and props from acclaimed Amazon Prime series 'The Tick' offered by Heritage Auctions

Porch costumes provide cheer in troubled times

Now playing: The South by Southwest Film Festival, sort of

Eavan Boland, 'disruptive' Irish poet, is dead at 75

UK plans mass singalong for locked-down VE Day

Reinvent the reel: Hollywood mulls new measures to restart shooting

Royal Ontario Museum Senior Curator wins prestigious Costume Society of America award

RIBOCA2 announces exhibition will transform into a feature movie, film set and online series of talks

The Best Sites for Playing Online Slots in Singapore

8 Ways to Maintain Good Mental & Physical Health During COVID-19 Quarantine

Wondering Why Use Instagram Ads? Here's The Reason

What do people do for fun in Ireland?

What can you do to make yourself more comfortable and popular on TikTok?




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful