Winner of the 2019 August Prize.
Near the river Klar?lven, snug in the dense forest landscape of northern V?rmland, lies the Swedish village of Osebol. It is a quiet, welcoming place, one where history feels more present than elsewhere and the bustle of city life is replaced by the sound of the wind in the trees.
In the last half-century, the automation of the lumber industry and the steady drip of relocations to the cities for work have seen Osebol's adult population dwindle to only 40-odd residents. The shops have closed; the bridge across the river is shut to traffic. But still, life goes on. Those who have inherited their farms for generations live alongside recent arrivals from near and far. People age; children grow up. Heirlooms are passed from hand to hand, and memories from mouth to mouth.
In this extraordinary book, Marit Kapla, herself a daughter of Osebol, has gathered the voices of the villagers themselves, interviewing almost all of those remaining between the ages of 18 and 92. They alone speak. Their words are arranged to gemlike effect, with only a handful of lines on each page, and through them their griefs, joys and moments of humour paint a textured and deeply personal picture of lives lived against the backdrop of nearly a century of Swedish and global history.
To read Osebol is to lose oneself in its gentle rhythms of simple language and white space, and to emerge feeling like one has really grown to know the inhabitants of this close-knit community, nestled among the trees in a changing world. It is a book quite unlike any other.
