Literature and Fiction · Hardback

The Swarm

Norwegian title: Svermen

Anders Malm

Four young boys, ABC and D, refuse to live as individuals instead they seek a new form of existence: The Swarm. By the help of a strict code of honor, based off made-at-home algorithms, they attempt to rid themselves of individual burdens and the contemporary demands for exceptionality. When they find a collection of leftover designer clothes, that used to belong to one boy's mother, the parental generation's worship of the individual starts to interfere with the boys' collective project.

Can the algorithms free us? This is an ambitious and dystopian novel about four boys denouncing the individuality and trying to melt into one. If you have had it with contemporary novels drilling into the every day problems of the urban middle class, Anders Malm is a fitting, if ever so gloomy, direction to turn. The thoughts are interesting, and the reader stays challenged all the way. FÆDRELANDSVENNEN