Carl-Johan Vallgren (b. 1964) is a Swedish writer whose diverse prose has also been widely translated into Estonian. His crime novels The Shadow Boy and The Tunnel (Skuggpojken and Svinen), published about a decade ago, centre on the interpreter and computer specialist Danny Katz, who, in order to find or help his friends – and to save himself – must descend into the murky and violent underworld of Stockholm. His most recent work to appear in Estonian is Your Time Will Come (Din tid kommer), which won the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Award for best crime novel in 2024. It follows police investigator Roger and criminal detective Johanna, both of whom must grapple not only with a gruesome murder but also with seemingly insurmountable personal difficulties. Vallgren’s earlier work from the 1990s is represented in Estonian by For Mr Bachmann’s Brochure (För herr Bachmanns broschyr). This is at once a humorous and disturbing rant against Swedish society, a book-length version of an online comment, in which Vallgren not only follows but surpasses the tradition of Thomas Bernhard’s “productive invective”.
Carl-Johan Vallgren
