Ten Swedes Must Die
Translator: Peter Sean Woltemade
Author: Martin Österdahl
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Year of Publication: 2019
Like its predecessor Ask No Mercy, Ten Swedes Must Die is a novel that integrates a multiplicity of character perspectives and settings and was inspired by dramatic and still-controversial real events that shaped relationships among Baltic states in the twentieth century.
Ten Swedes Must Die is a translation of Tio svenskar måste dö, the middle book of Martin Österdahl’s Max Anger trilogy. Four years after the events of Ask No Mercy, Österdahl’s troubled protagonist must once again seek to uncover the truth behind a wave of violence that threatens the very existence of Sweden as a sovereign nation. Once again, Max Anger learns of complex connections linking international intrigue in the last years of the twentieth century with his own childhood experiences on the small island of Arholma in the Stockholm archipelago and actions taken by Sweden during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath. Of central importance in Ten Swedes Must Die is the Swedish extradition of Baltic soldiers to the Soviet Union in 1946, an event that is also the subject of Per Olov Enquist’s 1968 documentary novel Legionärerna. Tio svenskar måste dö has been translated into languages including Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, and Spanish. Ten Swedes Must Die is available as a paperback, an e-book, and an audiobook.