"The sweat ran down their backs. The long journey from an icy and chilly Stockholm was over; they had arrived in Yekepa. The powerful sun beat down on patches of unprotected skin and the dust settled quickly again on the ground. Like a herd of fright ...
"The sweat ran down their backs. The long journey from an icy and chilly Stockholm was over; they had arrived in Yekepa. The powerful sun beat down on patches of unprotected skin and the dust settled quickly again on the ground. Like a herd of frightened animals they clung close together."
Hektor, Margret and their teenage son Mårten have just landed in Liberia. It is the end of the 1960s and Hektor is about to start his new job with the Swedish mining company LAMCO. The journey carried with it the promise of a new start but he soon realises that his career at the mine will not be straightforward. He is alarmed by the management's attitude towards the local inhabitants and unofficial strike action is looming.
His wife Margret is unhappy in her new environment and finds the Liberians both frightening and exasperating. The heat is oppressive, her nerves are in shreds and she is missing her lover Axel back home in Stockholm.
The only member of the family to feel at home in the new country is seventeen year-old Mårten. He soon befriends the Snake Boy, the family's unconventional gardener, and meets red-haired Ingela who loves Hitchcock and The Saint. Mårten is living in a new era: he believes in change and in the international solidarity of the proletariat, and he sides with the Liberians against the colonialists. However, his conviction and naiveté inevitably drive events to the edge of catastrophe and place the whole family - and the Snake Boy - in danger.
The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here, the story of a Swedish family's destiny in 1960s Liberia, is intensely gripping with its sense of foreboding and is a fascinating documentation of an often overlooked part of contemporary Swedish history.
Press voices:
“Ardelius risky, yet ingeniously simple imagery, and his timing, takes my breath away, like when the revolutionary Mårten cockily argues that one must break some eggs to make an omelette, while what will be his life's greatest egg breaking trauma is going on at the same moment, without his knowledge.” Dagens Nyheter
“Friheten förde oss hit is a text that does not judge, its content is tuned in elegiac minor but stylistically harmonious, it moves into the people, out between them, into the voids, the details, the retrospects, dreams. The novel is a quiet gem, continuously moving, very melancholy.” Göteborgs-Posten
“an exciting novel, vividly formed with a drive which also gives a realistic picture of how it could actually be for a Swedish family in Africa in the 1960s. And he writes a precise, nuanced Swedish with at times original metaphors, without any hint of cliché or repetition. " Helsingborgs Dagblad
“Parallels can be drawn to today's development work and global extortionate methods. But Friheten förde oss hit is not exactly debating. It could possibly be clarifying in a debate today. The material is burning hot.
But the focus is on the depiction of a zeitgeist in motion, where a middle class is being slowly made aware. For example, Margret – a perfect Barbie doll who struggles in the homemaker web, with hysterical outbursts and a sleeping pill addiction that subdues the desire to wake up and analyze the situation./.../ Friheten förde oss hit invokes both the stand still in Revolutionary Road and the power of Henning Mankell's commitment to the Third World. It provides the experience of getting out mushy and red from a literary solarium where the intense sixties radiates from the tubes. " Arbetarbladet
"Ardelius has written an important and thought-provoking book about a forgotten and not so pretty chapter in Swedish contemporary history.”
Svenska Dagbladet
“He has written several books for young readers, and been praised for them, and to my mind it can be recognized in his language. He has a simplicity and straightness in the flow that feels fresh and accessible. The narrative runs steadily and it is easy to get into the story. Although the situation in Liberia at times is incredibly complicated, Ardelius novel itself is straightforward.”
Borås Tidning
“Gunnar Ardelius was born in 1981, it is physically impossible that he lived in Liberia in the late 1960's. Yet his story has such a presence and intimacy with the events that I constantly have to remind myself that the story is not self-perceived by the author, because Gunnar Ardelius allows me as a reader to crawl under the skin of the characters. I can for example feel Hector’s ambivalence towards his employer's personnel policies and Margret’s restlessness and frustration which is channelled into an unreasoning hatred against Ormpojken. /.../ Friheten förde oss hit is a well-written, readable and important story about an aspect of the Swedish presence in Africa that deserves to be illuminated from all angles.” Skånska Dagbladet
“Ardelius describes the boredom and life struggle as pertinent, and sadly as he depicts the Swedish daily life in the jungle with great humor / ... / As often when someone writes, this novel seems to be about understanding yourself better, your background. It is a privilege for us readers that we at the same time get to take part in something outside our normal imagination and perhaps also realize that having ideals are not the same as living them.” Smålandsposten
“[Ardelius] writes tersely and deliciously dry, but sometimes he lets go of objectivity and allows the text to flow out into poetry. It's often touchingly beautiful” Sydsvenskan