This August Prize-winning first novel depicts a teenage boy’s struggle to confront the world of adulthood in rural southern Sweden in the 1970s, an era lovingly recreated in small details. Caught between loyalty to his disintegrating father and fear of his destiny as the future owner of a failing farm, Klas tries in vain to find positive role models and seeks solace in the world of nature, above all in watching birds.

In the 1840s the Finnish orientalist Georg August Wallin traveled in the Middle East, where he collected material on Arabic dialects. Considered an eminent scholar by his contemporaries, he died an untimely death shortly after his seven-year journey and was therefore able to publish only a fraction of his material. Gathering together what we know of Wallin’s work, the scholars in this book tell the fascinating story of his life and travels in Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, and Persia.

In order to make contact with local inhabitants, Wallin assumed a Muslim identity and disguised himself as the physician ‘Abd al-Wali’ from Central Asia. Inquisitive and sharp-eyed, he was able to document daily life among the urban dwellers of Cairo and the Bedouin of the northern Arabian Peninsula, preserving his unique material in letters and diaries written in his native language—Swedish—but, interestingly, sometimes rendered in the Arabic alphabet. Recounting his adventures through the ancient and holy lands of the Middle East, the authors here also highlight Wallin’s importance as a pathbreaking ethnographer and linguistic researcher.

The stunning Laponia – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – is the subject of this edited volume, featuring photography by Andrea Barghi. Translations of all Swedish-language contributions were prepared in conjunction with the editor.