Karen Engelmann
Karen Engelmann lived and worked in Sweden for eight years. She has an MFA from Goddard College in Vermont. She lives in Dobbs Ferry, New York.
Karen Engelmann recommends
Son of Svea (2022)
Lena Andersson
"Son of Svea is a sharp, skillful look at social democracy and the welfare state in Sweden through the life of Ragnar Johansson--a determined and at times infuriating 'ordinary' man who rises and recedes with the political movement. Born to a working-class father and an uneducated mother from the countryside, Ragnar sees the state as the answer to all of life's problems, despite his own confusion and ambivalence about the world and his place in it. His mother, Svea; wife, Elisabet; and children, Erik and Elsa, are forced to contend with Ragnar's fervent, sometimes cruel and fanatical beliefs about the correct way to live--beliefs that are eventually overwhelmed by time and change. This deeply interior novel provides a nuanced view of a social and political landscape that often glitters from afar, but is--like all places--complicated and full of contradictions."
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