We congratulate Frederik Svindland on being awarded the Saabye Christensen Grant for his debut novel Pelargonia. The novel has received excellent reviews, and has recently been published in Denmark. 

About Pelargonia:

Pelargonia is a novel about the process of growing up rather than a narrative plot. It is a collection of texts and descriptions of a childhood in Norway at the beginning of the 1990s, which now and then opens connections to both youth and young adulthood.

The novel is mainly driven by the language. The descriptions are attentive and affectionate – of mother and father and of clouds, flowers, the light, wheat flour, plums and clothes pegs.

Everyday objects and events are described with sensitivity, and although the book can appear enigmatic and inaccessible, it is also openhearted and communicative.

Frederik Svindland was nominated to the Tarjei Vesaas First Writers Award for this novel in 2016.

Reviews:

I congratulate Svindland on writing the best debut of 2016.
MORGENBLADET

It is a sorrowful novel, with hurtful and beautiful longing - to parents, to friendship, to nature, to understanding.
LITTERATURTIDSSKRIFTET LASSO

Svindland enriches the realm of books with literary sensibility, transforming the private nostagia into a general expression of how our childhood never stops working inside us.
KLASSEKAMPEN

The combination of intense sensibility and lyrical images makes Frederik Svindlands debut a refreshing and good read. 
DAG OG TID

It´s enthralling! 
LITTERATURLINJER.DK, Denmark