Round in Circles (I cirklarna runt)

Cilla Naumann

 

The 58 year old dramatist Anna lives in the apartment she has lived in all her grown life, in which her children grew up and in which she has been happy with her husband Jonas. But when a new apartment complex is being built in the area and all the trees are cut down outside their window, the block suddenly becomes a muddy and noisy inferno. The ground shakes from the explosions and Anna is shaken in her own foundation. She is writing a play but it's not going well. Her conscious becomes a scene in which memories are mixed with fiction and the play she is writing. She protests at the construction company and at her landlord but no one will listen to her, and she is filled with hatred and revenge. How far will she go?

 

Cilla Naumann’s portrait of a human being and a neighborhood on the verge of collapse is tingling, drastic and sad, but also asks the simple questions so hard to answer. What is longing and how can one find comfort?

 

236 pages

 

Rights sold

Sweden: Albert Bonniers förlag

 

Reviews

"This is a miracle."

Göteborgsposten

 

"Cilla Naumann wraps up the story with such elegance. The isolated life from hell Anna lives in the apartment is like a blue print copy of the trapped despair within her. As one door opens, the one towards grief, anohter door slides open as well, the one to the outside world."

Aftonbladet

 

"The alarming excavators and the silent construction workers create a feeling of horror in Cilla Naumann’s new novel. Yes, this is somehow a criticism of the hysteria of building and modernization of our time, but most of all I see a story about aging./…/One of Cilla Naumann’s primary strengths is her ability to deepen a scenario which at first glance looks simple. Her hand with the psychological tools gets stronger and stronger. Round in Circles is Cilla Naumann’s best novel so far."

Sydsvenska Dagbladet

 

"So, the novel is about the writing process, and about using grief and the pain from when a relative dies to art, to literature. /…/ Slowly but surely Round in Circles develops to a incantation of death and at the same time a affirmation of life itself."

Dagens Nyheter

 

"With a light touch Naumann weaves together the stories of an urban idyll in resolution and a woman struggling with her life. /…/ The work and the creative process gives an entrance to a thorough psychological portrait masterly created by Naumann."

Sydsvenska Dagbladet

 

"Cilla Naumann writes herself in under the dust and to the middle of chaos."

Kulturnyheterna, p1SR (Swedish Radio)

 

"Naumann is clear and consice, sometimes lyric and beautiful. The short theorems wind the excitement in the inner dialogue which is skillfully shaping the history of Anna.  /…/ When the perspective deepens I realize this is not a manifest against modernization. This is about the questions of life. /…/ It sounds sad, and it is. But at the same time Round in Circles offers a catharsis that brings hope for a new life."

Hallands nyheter