Ultraviolence
In the late 1990s, siblings Jarl and Eddie grow up in a decaying castle in the countryside. Jarl dreams of glamour — something he sorely lacks among the dirt, isolation, and inherited stagnation of rural life. His younger sister Eddie dreams only that her brother might want to spend time with her. When their father, the evasive aristocrat Carl-Jan, one day walks out and never returns, their mother Monica, whose grip on reality has always been fragile, loses her footing entirely.
As Monica retreats into her bedroom to indulge in self-pity, she leaves her children to impose order on the chaos she leaves behind. The results are uneven. Jarl grows increasingly unpredictable and self-mythologising, fuelled by prescription medication and the new millennium’s aestheticised film violence. Eddie, meanwhile, searches for intimacy in the shadow of her boundless brother and her spiritually unmoored mother.
When the past begins to intrude and death makes its entrance, everything shifts. Money must be divided, family loyalties are tested, and murder begins to present itself as an intriguing way of breaking old patterns.
Ultraviolence, Tone Schunnesson’s third novel, explores inheritance, trauma, and loyalty. It examines the bonds of siblinghood and parents who spiral out of control, the fine line between saving someone and destroying them — and the seductive pull of beauty and violence in place of reconciliation.
Pressvoices
“I could happily have spent another four hundred pages with this dysfunctional family. And if Tone Schunnesson doesn’t win the August Prize this year, I’ll eat my father’s old wooden clogs.” Sydsvenskan
“Schunnesson writes about her gloriously dysfunctional characters with such tenderness and intimacy that resistance is futile. It’s violent. It’s bloody. It’s outrageously entertaining. Yet beneath the ultraviolence lies something deeply compassionate and profoundly human.” Dagens Nyheter
“Ultraviolence is more than a daring, high-wire novel about the mechanics of patriarchal violence. It is an original, poetic story—deeply moving and wickedly funny.” Helsingborgs Dagblad
“The finest Swedish novel I’ve read this year—and I very much doubt anything will surpass it before the year’s out.” ETC
“Schunnesson’s novel is devastatingly moving… The narrative has such drive that you’ll want to read it in a single sitting.” Västerbottens-Kuriren
“Ultraviolence is a novel in constant conversation with other art forms—the visual language of film, the immediacy of the spoken voice… In short, Tone Schunnesson has written a landmark work of contemporary fiction.” Göteborgs-Posten
“Tone Schunnesson captures something strikingly true and rarely written about: mothers caught in destructive relationships.” Upsala Nya Tidning
“Read at your own risk. And savour it before it makes its way to the screen.” SVT Kultur
Tone Schunnesson (b. 1988) is a Swedish novelist, playwright, and cultural commentator, widely regarded as one of the most distinctive literary voices of her generation. She made her literary breakthrough with her debut novel Tripprapporter, 2016, which received strong critical acclaim and was shortlisted for several major literary awards. Her second novel, Days, Days &…
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Norway: Kagge, Denmark: Gads, Netherlands: Nijgh & Van Ditmar, UK and Commonwealth: Heloïse, Hungarian: Jelenkor, Finland: Johnny Kniga, Czech Republic: Argo, :In the late 1990s, siblings Jarl and Eddie grow up in a decaying castle in the countryside. Jarl dreams of glamour — something he sorely lacks among the dirt, isolation, and inherited stagnation of rural life. His younger sister Eddie dreams only that her brother might want to spend time with her. When their father, the evasive aristocrat Carl-Jan, one day walks out and never returns, their mother Monica, whose grip on reality has always been fragile, loses her footing entirely.
As Monica retreats into her bedroom to indulge in self-pity, she leaves her children to impose order on the chaos she leaves behind. The results are uneven. Jarl grows increasingly unpredictable and self-mythologising, fuelled by prescription medication and the new millennium’s aestheticised film violence. Eddie, meanwhile, searches for intimacy in the shadow of her boundless brother and her spiritually unmoored mother.
When the past begins to intrude and death makes its entrance, everything shifts. Money must be divided, family loyalties are tested, and murder begins to present itself as an intriguing way of breaking old patterns.
Ultraviolence, Tone Schunnesson’s third novel, explores inheritance, trauma, and loyalty. It examines the bonds of siblinghood and parents who spiral out of control, the fine line between saving someone and destroying them — and the seductive pull of beauty and violence in place of reconciliation.
Pressvoices
“I could happily have spent another four hundred pages with this dysfunctional family. And if Tone Schunnesson doesn’t win the August Prize this year, I’ll eat my father’s old wooden clogs.” Sydsvenskan
“Schunnesson writes about her gloriously dysfunctional characters with such tenderness and intimacy that resistance is futile. It’s violent. It’s bloody. It’s outrageously entertaining. Yet beneath the ultraviolence lies something deeply compassionate and profoundly human.” Dagens Nyheter
“Ultraviolence is more than a daring, high-wire novel about the mechanics of patriarchal violence. It is an original, poetic story—deeply moving and wickedly funny.” Helsingborgs Dagblad
“The finest Swedish novel I’ve read this year—and I very much doubt anything will surpass it before the year’s out.” ETC
“Schunnesson’s novel is devastatingly moving… The narrative has such drive that you’ll want to read it in a single sitting.” Västerbottens-Kuriren
“Ultraviolence is a novel in constant conversation with other art forms—the visual language of film, the immediacy of the spoken voice… In short, Tone Schunnesson has written a landmark work of contemporary fiction.” Göteborgs-Posten
“Tone Schunnesson captures something strikingly true and rarely written about: mothers caught in destructive relationships.” Upsala Nya Tidning
“Read at your own risk. And savour it before it makes its way to the screen.” SVT Kultur
