Denise Rudberg was not vaccinated – contracted a fatal disease

Denise Rudberg is current with a new audio drama that takes place in the 70s. The inspiration behind it is to better understand her mother, with whom she broke contact completely as a 19-year-old.
– She was an anti-vaxer. The fact that I was not vaccinated was very decisive, because I was ten years old when I got the measles and eleven years old when I got whooping cough, says Rudberg in Efter fem.

Denise Rudberg is one of Sweden’s most popular authors with book series such as Elegant Crime. Now she is current with a new audio drama, Night’s evil: Her last step.

– It was inspired by things that happened on a specific night in 1973. I was fascinated by this case because it is still an unsolved case and it has been gnawing at me. Then I felt that I probably want to tell it in a different way, a little documentary portrayed, says Denise Rudberg.

The dramaturgy and the portrayal are different when you write in book form compared to in audio form, she believes. She discovered the sound form in 2021 when she wrote her famous summer talk about her relationship with her mother, with whom she broke contact at 19.

Grew up in destructive conditions

Rudberg often writes about men’s violence against women, and her new drama is no exception.

– I depicted a very violent and destructive relationship in my debut novel, but that was not what people focused on at the time. Then now, 36 books later, I see a very clear pattern. I have a very strong need to tell about a vulnerable woman who is controlled by her husband, says Denise Rudberg.

In After Five, she talks about the destructive conditions she grew up in, which also shaped her writing.

– A situation I grew up under was very destructive and violent and it is clear that it has left its mark on me. I don’t think I would have been a writer if it hadn’t been something I was exposed to, but I didn’t understand that at first.

Be close to striking out

After her summer talk about her mother, she realized she didn’t know much about her childhood or the 1970s. To understand their relationship, she wanted to read, which was the starting point for the new audio drama.

– My mother was an anti-vaxer. The fact that I was not vaccinated was decisive because I was ten when I got the measles and eleven when I got whooping cough, says Denise Rudberg.

She was very ill from the deadly disease measles and because she was not allowed to get vaccinated, she fell ill immediately afterwards with whooping cough.