Facts: Maria Wensund
Age: 50 years
Lives: Hemsjö, outside Alingsås since four years ago. Raised in Kåsjö and has since lived in Lerum for large parts of his life.
Family: Partner Dennis, adult daughter Jennifer and bonus children.
Occupation: Financial manager at a company that sells and installs geothermal heat pumps. Also runs his own accounting firm together with his daughter.
Current: With the debut novel “Tillbaka till Hemsjö” which will be released in June as well as a film version which is supposed to premiere at Christmas 2024. The film is produced by Colin Nutley and directed by Helena Bergström.
Five ducks and as many cats strut about in front of the soft sun-yellow house. The wooden deck in front of the pool, the sloping meadow and the striking view of the Bysjön look exactly the same in reality as in fiction.
Maria Wensund’s debut novel “Tillbaka till Hemsjö” is about Bodil, 81 years old, who has decided that life is not worth living anymore. The husband and friends have passed away and the faithful companion Bosse, a black labrador, does not have far to go.
Bodil has collected pills in a jar waiting in the bathroom cabinet. But first she and Bosse must return to Hemsjö and the childhood home, which Bodil has not seen for over six decades, for one last summer.
The unheated pool house has now become a writer’s cottage. In the winter, Maria Wensund sits in the sauna and wraps herself in blankets to keep from freezing. In the picture, she is seen together with the cat Skrållan.
The author himself moved to the small village outside Alingsås four years ago. However, with a busy career and three horses to look after, there was no time for authorial dreams.
“I have barely read a book since I was thirteen,” says Maria Wensund.
Lack of education
The writing began instead as a promise to a twelve-year-old she had met in her previous work.
— It was a moving story where I ended up in the middle of a big tangle. I promised that I would write down his story, so I started when the pandemic started. But I couldn’t write.
Inexperience had never stopped her before. She landed her first job as an accounting economist without any training.
— I thought “how hard can it be?”. And I managed to hang on for three months, but it was tough. Finally we got close to the financial statements and what is a financial statement? I didn’t know, says Maria Wensund.
Ankan Jocke and his four friends are not only part of Maria Wensund’s family – they have also provided inspiration for events in the book.
She decided to tell the truth to the manager, and resign.
— But then he laughed and said that if you managed three months without education, you are welcome to stay, then we will send you to education.
“Caught My Attention”
She tackled writing in a similar way. She listened to audiobooks and author podcasts, over and over. And despite the fact that the book about the twelve-year-old boy was never accepted, Maria Wensund had found something.
— Then I saw in my mind Bodil and Bosse walking along the dirt road, like in a movie. She sort of called my attention, she says.
In March 2022, Maria Wensund sold the horses, which had been a large part of her life. “I had started to lose interest, and so I wanted to write. And it didn’t work out, so I had to choose and I chose writing,” she says.
“Back to Hemsjö” wrote Maria Wensund in twelve weeks.
To get through the noise and get in touch with the publishers, she called the voice actor Anna Maria Käll, who read her favorite audio books, and asked her to read the first two chapters.
— It was in March 2022. She laughed and said that she was fully booked for the whole of 2023. And it didn’t work out, this was supposed to end now. So I said “you can get up a little earlier in the morning?”, says Maria Wensund, who herself often wakes up as early as four o’clock.
The ploy worked and the publishers pounced. In June, the first part of the trilogy will be released. The second and half of the third part have already been written.
“A whole new world has opened up. I’ve always been the clown who always scared the life out of people and loved to tell stories, and now I get to do it,” says Maria Wensund.
In addition, Maria Wensund – on her own – managed to get a film contract by calling Colin Nutley’s production company.
— I said “I think Colin will love this, can I talk to him?” Then the woman I spoke to started laughing and thought that it’s not really how things work in the film industry, she says.
That it succeeded is hard to take in, says Maria Wensund.
— I have always been very good at fighting against adversity, this is more difficult. That I have now succeeded. It is almost so big that it is difficult to understand it, she says.