The Laughing Policeman (29 page)

In Scandinavia we have shifting seasons and to make a book's setting the cold winter or grey autumn or slushy pre-spring or hot summer can spice up the story a little. Sometimes we simply used the weather as it was at the time of writing.

You seemed particularly interested in what you call the ‘poison' of status in this book. Did you think Sweden especially succumbed to this?

I'm not sure I understand the question, but I suppose that the development we described in Sweden was similar to that in the rest of the world.

There is a very powerful use of the past in this novel, more so than in the preceding books. Was that deliberate and, if so, why did you wait until now?

I think it turned out to be the right time to look back in history and give both the reader and us some background. We hadn't really planned it or postponed it, though.

This novel won the Edgar Award in 1971 and remains the only European novel to have done so. Why do you think this book was so popular with American readers?

I honestly don't know. Perhaps it took time for American readers to find their way to our books and that particular tide might have created an interest for Sweden and the so-called 'Swedish Model' which Prime Minister Palme spread abroad.

Maj Sjöwall was born in 1935 in Stockholm, Sweden. She studied journalism and graphics and worked as a translator, as well as an art director and journalist for some of the most eminent magazines and newspapers in Sweden. She met her husband Per Wahloo in 1961 through her work, and the two almost instantly became a couple. They had two sons together and, after the death of Per Wahlöö, Sjöwall continued to translate. She also wrote several short stories and the acclaimed crime novel The Woman Who Resembled Greta Garbo, with the Dutch crime writer Tomas Ross. She is arguably Sweden's finest translator and is still at work today.