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Ebba, Leo, Anja, Matti, Helena and Emanuel have organised their lives around one another for years. They celebrate birthdays, holidays and life’s milestones together, share familiar weekend routines and meet for occasional drinks, all with the ease of a chosen family. But as they approach thirty, the life that has held them together is beginning to change.
While Ebba struggles to balance a demanding career with the responsibility she feels for her younger brother Leo and his gambling addiction, Helena is raising her daughter alone and fighting to establish herself as a graphic novelist. Matti dreams of having children and building a future with Anja, his partner since adolescence. He is also the friend who steps in when Helena needs help, particularly with childcare. Anja, however, finds herself increasingly drawn to Emanuel, the restless friend who has always hovered at the edges of the others’ lives.
Over the course of a few turbulent months, suppressed desires and concealed failures begin to surface. The friends are forced to confront not only what they have hidden from one another, but also the roles in which they have become trapped: caretaker, outsider, dependable partner, eternal child. By the time everything has been revealed, it is not simply one relationship that has broken apart, but the familiar structure of the group itself.
Told from six alternating perspectives, Stortaxi is an emotionally acute ensemble novel about friendship, intimacy and the disorienting passage into adulthood. It asks what remains when people who have always travelled through life together begin, almost without noticing, to head in different directions.
Press voices
“Stortaxi genuinely excites me. Not only because it is a compelling story about relationships and the tension between community and independence. Not only because Wiström writes like a Swedish Sally Rooney: accessible, exhilarating and utterly of the moment. But because she has written a proper novel. And that is becoming increasingly rare.”
Dagens Nyheter
“Stortaxi might best be described as a dark and gritty Friends for millennials, only in novel form. And set in Stockholm. And much, much more melancholic.”
Expressen
“… a beautifully written and perceptive ensemble novel, a song for each and every one of the millennials who have crossed the finish line and turned thirty after a marathon through a shrinking welfare state, an insecure labour market, growing competition in a globalised world, a pandemic and, finally, war.”
Aftonbladet
“At its best, the novel recalls the Norwegian television series Skam, but with Stockholmers in the throes of a thirtysomething crisis.”
Göteborgs-Posten
“The fictional world of Stortaxi allows Wiström to portray morally flawed people without making excuses for them. It suits her remarkably well and elevates her writing to a new level.”
Kilounit
Flora Wiström (b. 1994) is a Swedish author, columnist and one of Sweden’s longest-running literary bloggers. She is the author of two young adult novels and one previous novel for adults, all of which were well received by critics. Having written online since the age of twelve, Wiström often describes blogging as her training ground…
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About the book
Ebba, Leo, Anja, Matti, Helena and Emanuel have organised their lives around one another for years. They celebrate birthdays, holidays and life’s milestones together, share familiar weekend routines and meet for occasional drinks, all with the ease of a chosen family. But as they approach thirty, the life that has held them together is beginning to change.
While Ebba struggles to balance a demanding career with the responsibility she feels for her younger brother Leo and his gambling addiction, Helena is raising her daughter alone and fighting to establish herself as a graphic novelist. Matti dreams of having children and building a future with Anja, his partner since adolescence. He is also the friend who steps in when Helena needs help, particularly with childcare. Anja, however, finds herself increasingly drawn to Emanuel, the restless friend who has always hovered at the edges of the others’ lives.
Over the course of a few turbulent months, suppressed desires and concealed failures begin to surface. The friends are forced to confront not only what they have hidden from one another, but also the roles in which they have become trapped: caretaker, outsider, dependable partner, eternal child. By the time everything has been revealed, it is not simply one relationship that has broken apart, but the familiar structure of the group itself.
Told from six alternating perspectives, Stortaxi is an emotionally acute ensemble novel about friendship, intimacy and the disorienting passage into adulthood. It asks what remains when people who have always travelled through life together begin, almost without noticing, to head in different directions.
Press voices
“Stortaxi genuinely excites me. Not only because it is a compelling story about relationships and the tension between community and independence. Not only because Wiström writes like a Swedish Sally Rooney: accessible, exhilarating and utterly of the moment. But because she has written a proper novel. And that is becoming increasingly rare.”
Dagens Nyheter
“Stortaxi might best be described as a dark and gritty Friends for millennials, only in novel form. And set in Stockholm. And much, much more melancholic.”
Expressen
“… a beautifully written and perceptive ensemble novel, a song for each and every one of the millennials who have crossed the finish line and turned thirty after a marathon through a shrinking welfare state, an insecure labour market, growing competition in a globalised world, a pandemic and, finally, war.”
Aftonbladet
“At its best, the novel recalls the Norwegian television series Skam, but with Stockholmers in the throes of a thirtysomething crisis.”
Göteborgs-Posten
“The fictional world of Stortaxi allows Wiström to portray morally flawed people without making excuses for them. It suits her remarkably well and elevates her writing to a new level.”
Kilounit