Facts: John Ajvide Lindqvist
Born : 1968, grew up in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg
Living : On Rådmansö in Roslagen.
Background : After a career as a stand-up comedian and magician, he became a horror writer and is today considered perhaps Sweden’s foremost in the genre. In addition to novels and short stories, he has written film scripts and theater plays.
Prizes and awards : Selma Lagerlöf prize and GP’s literature prize. His books are published in more than 30 countries. The film adaptations of “Låt den rätte komma in” and the short story “Gräns” have been awarded with a number of Guldbaggar.
Do during the summer of 2023 : “Very little. We live right by the sea and have an old wooden snipe so we go on trips to islands. The best thing I know is to sit on the roof of the boathouse and steer the rudder with my foot. Then I sit there and look out over the islands as the boat makes plod along at six knots. I get a lot of ideas that way. But in the summer I don’t even write them down, but trust what Stephen King said: ‘you don’t lose the really good ideas'”.
Ever since his debut with “Let the right one in”, John Ajvide Lindqvist has written about mythological beings: vampires, werewolves and zombies. In the current novel “Summer 1985” it is about a mermaid.
— I thought about which mythological beings I haven’t written about. The mermaid came to mind and I thought it could be a fun challenge, says John Ajvide Lindqvist.
It should be said right here: anyone expecting a beautiful mermaid like those in movies like “Splash” or “The Little Mermaid” will be disappointed. A seasoned John Ajvide Lindqvist reader will probably recognize himself, however, because he deconstructs the romantic image of a mermaid.
— If we really had a human-like creature that lived underwater, it wouldn’t have long, beautiful, wavy hair, for example. It would be very impractical and it is quite rare to see fish with it, says John Ajvide Lindqvist and laughs.
The mermaid in “Summer 1985” has scales, fish-like eyes and sharp teeth. The main character and narrator in the book, Johannes, finds her tied up on the inaccessible island of Svärtan, where he went with his three guy friends – while the three girls in the group of friends were left at home on Särsö.
The seven friends in the novel have spent many summers together right there, on Särsö in the Roslagen archipelago. But the summer described in the book is different. All but one of the gang have turned fourteen. The hormones are bubbling in their bodies and the relationships, especially between the boys and the girls, have started to change.
Enjoyable to return
John Ajvide Lindqvist himself spent his childhood summers on Rådmansö, where he now lives. He dedicates the novel to his old gang with the words “summers were my best time” and says he had a great time writing “Summer 1985”.
— It was pure pleasure. The summers were my best time when I was 12, 13, 14 years old, because at Rådmansö I was accepted and one of the gang. The hard part about my childhood was being in the city.
He already dealt with the more difficult side of childhood in “Let the right come in”, which takes place in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg.
— Now it was fun to also write about the positive side of my childhood.
But. It is still about a novel by horror master John Ajvide Lindqvist. So the archipelago is far from just idyllic. He himself has called the new novel a “mix between ‘We at the Salt Crow’ and Stephen King”.
— The sea is mysterious with its depths. Knowing that there are strange creatures moving around down there, but that you can’t see when you swim around on the surface. It’s good material for a writer. But another reason for writing about the archipelago is, of course, that it is an environment that I know and love.
The meaning of music
Another thing that John Ajvide Lindqvist loves and uses frequently in his books is pop music and references to it. The main character Johannes peps himself up with Band Aid’s “Do they know it’s Christmas” to dare to face the both terrifying and deeply fascinating mermaid. The whole group of friends cheers for the telecast of the Live Aid gala. In fact, the plot was moved to the summer of 1985 so that he could bring Live Aid into the plot.
— When I had decided to write a book about a mermaid, I had three short sentences in my head: “It was that summer. The summer of 1985. Live Aid summer”.
It was the beginning of the novel. But when he started writing, he realized that the Live Aid gala could also serve as a kind of counterweight to the more terrifying things happening in the archipelago. John Ajvide Lindqvist says that it turned out to be a good “complementary tension field”.
— The characters in my novels are, just like me and my friends, very busy with Live Aid that particular summer. It was widely reported that it would be broadcast via satellite. It was so new and fascinating then. Then there was also a global happening that was fascinating.
John Ajvide Lindqvist writes to music, to “set the mood” for himself. Through the musical references in the text, he wants to create an “emotional equivalent” to what happens in the story, he says:
— In order to describe well that something horrible is about to happen, you need to activate all of the reader’s senses. That is, how it feels, how it tastes in the mouth, what smells you feel. And: what you hear. The music can emphasize how something feels.
John Ajvide Lindqvist was inspired by the summers of his childhood when he wrote the book “Summer 1985”. Archive image.