GREGORIUS

This is the story of the love triangle first described in the Swedish classic Doctor Glas between an ageing and apparently repulsive priest; his beautiful young wife; and her lover, a doctor who will stop at nothing – perhaps even murder – to have her. There are always three ways of telling this kind of story, and here Bengt Ohlsson gives a voice to Gregorius, the troubled priest who is a difficult husband and a man who is only beginning to understand himself during the course of what could be his last and fateful summer. Winner of the August Prize, Sweden’s most prestigious literary award, Gregorius is a compelling study of loneliness, longing and the nature of love; the desires that bring people together and the fears that keep them apart. ‘A full, touching, and artful re-imagining of its ungainly hero. It’s also an unsettling but thoroughly engaging exploration of the seedier sides of human nature, and of the power men and women wield over each other in their most intimate relationships. No wonder it won a prize.’ Margaret Atwood