A Fortune Foretold
  • Published: 15 June 2017
  • ISBN: 9781590518304
  • Imprint: Other Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $37.99

A Fortune Foretold

A Novel

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Agneta Pleijel writes a painful yet humorous autobiographical novel about the disarray of childhood in the aftermath of World War II.

Agneta Pleijel writes a painful yet humorous autobiographical novel about childhood in the aftermath of World War II.
 
A prophecy is received by a beloved aunt, a prophecy that her young niece eagerly waits to see fulfilled.
 
The story takes place in the 1950s in the suburbs of Stockholm, in the university town of Lund, and in the United States. Neta’s childhood is in disarray. She reads—words give form to the vagueness of existence—and is busy thinking about the female sex, family, and the stupendous diversity of people in the world. Her father, a mathematician, and her mother, a musician, are in constant conflict, but
she loves them both. Gradually Neta realizes that she’s grown up in a lie and that she must step carefully through the war zone of her parents’ marriage.
 
This is an insightful tale about the search for truth, morality, and a place of your own in the world.
  • Published: 15 June 2017
  • ISBN: 9781590518304
  • Imprint: Other Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $37.99
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Praise for A Fortune Foretold

"Agneta Pleijel's marvelously lustrous autobiographical novel is one that will set the tone for others." --Expressen

"A classic coming-of-age story, in short, but also captivating in an unconventional way. Agneta Pleijel's language is carnal and melancholic /.../ Pleijel has created a vibrant portrait of a family rooted in a specific zeitgeist, but at the same time living in a historical period of progress. Like many children of the fifties, Agneta Pleijel decides not to be like her parents. She wants to try to be a writer. How fortunate for us." --Dagens Nyheter

"Despite a distressing and dark plot it is as always very pleasant to find oneself in the language of Agneta Pleijel. A FORTUNE FORETOLD is a low-key, grand novel about a family who has lived in a messy lie, about a suffocating mother-daughter relationship, and about the immense issue: what is love?" --Svenska Dagbladet

"A FORTUNE FORETOLD affects me strongly, both emotionally and intellectually. I very much like the author's close reasoning and her ability to see herself from within, but also from an outside perspective. Agneta Pleijel is a linguistic master and an attentive psychologist. Nothing is superfluous, nothing is missing." --Göteborgs-Posten

"Frank, captivating, and wistful." --Aftonbladet