Leif GW Persson

Leif G. W Persson (2013)

Leif Gustav Willy ("GW") Persson ( pronunciation : [ ˌlɛjf geːveːˈpæːʂɔn ], born March 12, 1945 in Stockholm ) is a criminologist , television presenter and one of Sweden's leading crime writers .

life and work

Persson is the son of a construction worker. In 1977 he was working for Rikspolisstyrelsen, the central supervisory authority of the Swedish police force , when an affair about suspected contacts of former Swedish Justice Minister Lennart Geijer with prostitutes became public. The daily Dagens Nyheter exposed Persson's name as the source of the allegations, and the latter was dismissed from the police force. The affair turned into one of Sweden's biggest judicial scandals. After a suicide attempt , Persson processed the events literarily and wrote his first detective novel Grisfesten (German: The Pig Festival) within six weeks, 1978) about a minister and his contacts with prostitutes.

In the following years Persson published two more novels with police officers Lars Martin Johansson and Bo Jarnebring. For Samhällsbärarna (Eng. In good company ) he won the Swedish crime prize in 1982 . He then took a 20-year break from crime fiction. In 1991 he returned to the service of the Rikspolisstyrelsen and supported the authority as a professor of criminology in studies of crime and as a consultant in criminal cases. In 2012 he left the Rikspolisstyrelsen.

Leif GW Persson (2010)

From 1999 to 2009 Persson appeared as an expert on the Swedish television program Efterlyst ( Eng . Wanted ), in which crimes are solved with the help of television viewers. Since 2010 he has been presenting unsolved criminal cases on the television program Veckans brott (German crime of the week ). In the volume Den som dödar draken ( Eng . Atonement , 2008), the author satirizes his own activities in a kind of cameo : "This worn-out professor from the Reich Police Department ... who chews our ears off every Thursday in file number XY ." Persson published his autobiography in 2012 under the title Gustavs grabb ( Eng . The Professor. How I became Sweden's most successful profiler ) .

Persson's crime novels about the protagonist Lars M. Johansson are among the most successful crime novels in Sweden. The volumes Mellan sommarens längan och vinterns köld (German: Between the longing of summer and the cold of winter , 2002), En annan tid, ett annat liv (German: Another time, another life , 2003) and Faller fritt som i en dröm (German: Doubt , 2007) form the trilogy Välfärdsstatens fall (German: The Fall of the Welfare State ), the unifying element of which is the murder of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986, which has not yet been resolved . The focus of the second novel is the hostage-taking of Stockholm by an RAF commando in 1975. After the trilogy, the two TV mini-series En pilgrims död (German death of a pilgrim , 2013) and Den fjärde mannen (German The fourth man , 2014/15) with Rolf Lassgård in the lead role.

A character who appears frequently in Persson's novels, whether as a minor character in the Johansson novels or as a protagonist in the novels Linda, som i Lindamordet (German Murderous Idylle , 2005), Den som dödar draken (German atonement , 2008) and Den sanna historien om Pinocchios näsa (Eng. The happy liar , 2013) is Evert Bäckström, a Swedish criminal investigator with poor hygiene, dubious morals and a racist, sexist and homophobic attitude. It served as a template for the American television series Backstrom from 2015.

Works

• Grisfesten . 1978, (not translated into German).
• Profitörerna . 1979, (German Die Profiteure . Btb, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-442-73376-7 ).
• Samhällsbärarna . 1982 (German. In good company ; literally: The corporate bodies - “Stützen der Gesellschaft”. Btb, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-442-73338-3 ).
• Mellan sommarens long and vinterns köld . 2002, (German: Between the longing of summer and the cold of winter . Btb, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-442-75140-3 ).
• En annan tid, ett annat liv . 2003, (German. Another time, another life . Btb, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-442-75132-7 ).
• Linda, som i Lindamordet . 2005, (German murderous idyll ; literal: "Linda like Lindamord". Btb, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-442-75170-9 ).
• Faller fritt som i en dröm . 2007, (German: Doubt ; literally: "Free falling like in a dream". Btb, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-442-74020-8 ).
• Den som dödar draken . 2008, (German atonement ; literal: "Who kills the dragon". Btb, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-442-75209-6 ).
• The dozing detective . 2010, (German The dying detective . Btb, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-442-75307-9 ).
• Gustav's grabb . 2012, (dt. The Professor. How Sweden's most successful Profiler was . Btb Verlag , Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3442-75382-6 ).
• The sanna historien om Pinocchios näsa . Albert Bonniers Förlag, Stockholm 2013, ISBN 9789100121624 (German The Happy Liar , translated by Wibke Kuhn . Btb, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-442-75468-7 ).
• Bombmakaren och hans kvinna . Albert Bonniers Förlag, Stockholm 2015, ISBN 978-9100140458 (German treason , translated by Susanne Dahmann . Btb, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-442-79954-1 ).
• Can you do två gånger? . Albert Bonniers Förlag, Stockholm 2016, ISBN 978-9100161415 (German who dies twice , translated by Julia Gschwilm . Btb, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-442-75747-3 ).

Awards

• 1982 Swedish crime prize (national) for Samhällsbärarna . Forum, Stockholm 1971 (German: In good company . Btb, Munich 2005)
• 2003 Swedish Crime Award (National) for En annan tid, ett annat liv . Piratförlaget, Stockholm 2003 (German: Another time, another life . Btb, Munich 2006)
• 2010 Swedish Crime Award (National) for The Döende Detective . Albert Bonnier, Stockholm 2010 (German The Dying Detective . Btb, Munich 2011)
• 2010 BMF badge
• 2011 Scandinavian detective award for the dozing detective .
• 2012 Palle-Rosenkrantz-Prize for the dozing detective .

Web links

Commons : Leif GW Persson  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Leif GW Persson in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and reviews of works by Leif GW Persson at perlentaucher.de
• Leif GW Persson in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} The professor. How I became Sweden's most successful profiler at the Random House publishing group .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Emma Kreü: Leif GW Persson at The literary magazine of Swedish books & writers .
3. ↑ Swedish books become US TV series at Nordstjernan .
4. ↑ Short biography and reviews of works by Leif GW Persson at perlentaucher.de
5. ↑ US drama series Backstrom from today on Kabel 1 at Moviepilot . May 8, 2015.