17623 - ams - commemoration - Sara Lidman - The True Voice of Swedish Literature

Sara Lidman as a child suffered from tuberculosis and spent some time in a sanatorium, where she read a lot and listened to the radio. She had worked working as a waitress and post office worker and as a theatre trainee in Stockholm. Her marriage and the publication of her first novel (The Tar Still) happened almost at the same time. In 1960-61, she spent some time in South Africa, where she got to know Nadine Gordimer. She was involved in politics during her stay in South Africa and was imprisoned. She was released on the condition that she will never return to South Africa. She took up other causes such as opposition to the Vietnam War and opposition to nuclear weapons. She wrote some twenty novels, often about her home region, as well as articles and plays. Lidman was interested in reporting social conditions rather than writing fiction. She was one of the first Swedes in the 1960s to promote solidarity with South Africa, for example with 'Jag och min son' (N), 1961, and with Vietnam in her travel book 'Samtal i Hanoi', 1966. Her works have been translated into several languages, and she was the recipient of several literary awards. Her last book was “The Root of Life” in 1996.