Mikael Engström

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Mikael Engström (* 1961 in Solna ) is a Swedish writer who is best known for his books for children and young people .

life and work

Mikael Engström began his writing career with various books on fishing. In 1997 he made his debut as a children's book author with the book Kaspar, Atom-Ragnar och gäddänke , which was translated into German in 2015. Of the 16 books he has written so far (five fishing books, eight children's books, three young people's books ) are with Brando - Something is always! (2003), Steppo - Full of the Crisis (2006), You won't get me! (2009), Ida, Paul and the nasty giants from the Third (2012) and Ida, Paul and the Döddetektiven (2012) only five books have been published in German translation, all of which were translated into German by Birgitta Kicherer. Mikael Engström's books have been translated into English, Dutch, Italian, Danish, French, Norwegian and Finnish as well as German. His book Brando - Something is always! nominated for the German Youth Literature Award and also received LUCHS of the month in February 2008.

Reviews

Brando - There is always something!

  • FAZ : “Engström looked closely at the twelve-year-old's mouth. Their language is artistically authentic. There is also a lot of unspoken floating in it, which is sometimes consciously, but mostly unconsciously, talked about, but in such a way that one can see through it when reading it. Brando, Larsa and the somewhat eerie Ola take on their very own contours. They have had our sympathies for a long time, because they are not only very lively lads, albeit in a somewhat weird way. They are also characterized by a special sense of fairness and spontaneous friendliness, which makes them almost something like role models for their peers. In the end, with red ears you read the book much faster than you thought, it is not easy to part with this trio, whose thirst for experience, passion for collecting and laconic chutzpah impress on every page. "
  • Süddeutsche Zeitung : "It is seldom in youth literature that one has to deal with such deliciously tragic-comic heroes who preserve dignity in a very original way and who take the reader's sympathies by storm."

You won't get me!

  • FAZ : “ Peter Pohl's heyday is over, the direct, sometimes greasy Mats choice with increasing age is not for everyone - there has been little great news from Sweden for young readers recently. Mikael Engström is a welcome exception. Even his first two novels from 2003 and 2006, Brando and Steppo , were rushes of reading pleasure and fright. So biting, witty and at the same time heart-warming nobody had brought the suburban dreariness of the welfare state into the youth book; such a thing had previously been more a matter for adult crime writers. "
  • Süddeutsche Zeitung : “In Mikael Engström's new novel You won't get me! the reader asks himself, where are we here anyway? In Nangijala? In the Mattiswald? Even the eleven-year-old hero Mik always thinks of Krümel and Jonathan Löwenherz when he thinks of his own meager life with brother and father. The story reminds readers of The Lionheart Brothers , the Cherry Blossom Valley, sometimes the Wild Rose Valley and the Karma Falls behind which Katla and Tengil lurk. In hopeful moments even Ronja and Birk peek out from Ronja the robber's daughter over behind the bushes by the river. River - yes, this is where Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer also come into play, even if the north Swedish river landscape - where much of the story takes place - is not remotely reminiscent of the Mississippi or the lovely Småland of Astrid Lindgren . And finally with Solna - where Mik grows up - we think of the gloomy mood in Mats Wahl's adolescent novels, especially in the winter bay . How does that work together? Thanks to the clever dramaturgy of the author, who - as in his debut novel Brando - stages the uncomfortable life of a big city child so realistically (translated excellently by Birgitta Kicherer) that we do not allow ourselves to take a break while reading. For the young reader, you can't get me! an exciting and stirring novel, for the older ones the book is almost like a parable. (...) Engström cleverly combines the social drama with elements of an adventure novel in a terribly beautiful landscape. He also connects the inner struggles of the child, who has lost all orientation, with a moral force working in the background, which sets self-determination against external determination. "
  • Die Zeit : “We know that family is sometimes not a good place to grow up. We see it around us, we read about it in newspapers and also in books. Children's and young adult literature is rich in stories about troubled childhoods. Most of them are texts that are told along sociological findings with more pedagogical than literary claims. In his most recent novel, the Swedish author Mikael Engström also makes use of the material from which these books are made: run-down suburbs, broken families, alcoholism, crime, narrow-minded officials. He puts his hero Mik in the middle of this world. He leaves it to paragraph riders who only pretend to want the best. These are foster parents who ruthlessly lock their protégé in the basement or let him muck out the cages of drooling dogs. And children who are jaded and malevolent pests. He lets so much calamity rain down on his young hero. What saves Mik and us, however, is the author's narrative art, which Birgitta Kicherer translated into German with ease. Engström is noticeably affectionate to his hero, avoids pathos and has a keen sense of humor. He incorporates breaks in this odyssey through hell, stages the northern Swedish landscape as a paradisiacal ice land, populated by bizarre but lovable characters, well suited for children's adventures. He also advises the boy on alert and friendly children, such as the girl Pi, who knows where to catch fish and how to gouge them, and who takes great pleasure in sucking Mik's earlobes. Engström leaves no doubt that these idylls are small islands on swaying ground. The threatening abyss and the longing for redemption are always present, in a cage full of dog poop as in the magical snow-covered forest. That it is very serious, a matter of life and death, is made clear not least by the fact that Engström inscribes The Lionheart Brothers in his novel Astrid Lindgren's . In it, Mik finds refuge from the great solitude of the snake. From the beginning, however, the evil Tengil and the female dragon are on his heels. In the great showdown at the end they almost have him: Trapped under the ice cover of a lake, he is already thinking the last sentence from Lindgren's great classic about death: »I see the light.« "

bibliography

First edition title illustration publishing company ISBN Translation first edition Translation title Translation publisher Translation ISBN translation comment
1989 Langans öring Mikael Engström, Elisabeth Andersson (Photos) Setters ISBN 9175863219 Fishing book
1992 Med korpen vid ån Mikael Engström (Photos) Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9129616921 , ISBN 9789129616927 Fishing book
1996 Handbok i lustfiske Mikael Engström (Photos) Rabén prism ISBN 9151828529 Fishing book
1997 Nyt nappaa Mikael Engström (Photos) Gummerus ISBN 9512050331 Fishing book
1997 Fiska i stan. Ingår i Staden on vattnet Samfundet S: t Erik ISBN 9197216585 Fishing book
1997 Kaspar, Atom-Ragnar and your thanks Helena Willis Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9129640032 , ISBN 9129670713 , ISBN 9789129640038 , ISBN 9789129670714 2015 Kaspar, Grandpa and the monster pike dtv 9433423640145 Children's book
1998 Atom-Ragnar och snömannen Helena Willis Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9129645115 , ISBN 9789129645118 Children's book
1999 Atomic Ragnar och mordbrännaren Helena Willis Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9789129646375 Children's book
2001 Kaspar och snömannen Helena Willis Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9789129654646 Children's book
2001 Great Dane Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9129654378 , ISBN 9189646231 Hardcover: 2003, Paperback: 2005 Brando - There is always something! Hardcover: Hanser , paperback: dtv Hardcover: ISBN 9783446203037 , Paperback: ISBN 9783423622455 Birgitta Kicherer youth book
2003 Kaspar och båtsnurran Helena Willis Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9129657350 Children's book
2003 Satan's tjuv Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9129657202 , ISBN 9789129657203 2006, new edition: 2008 Steppo - full of the crisis Hanser , new edition: dtv ISBN 9783423623582 , new edition: ISBN 9783446207028 Birgitta Kicherer youth book
2007 Isdraken Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9129662516 , ISBN 9129682215 , ISBN 9789129662511 , ISBN 9789129682212 2009, new edition: 2011 You won't get me! Hanser , new edition: dtv ISBN 9783446233799 , new edition: ISBN 978-3-423624923 Birgitta Kicherer youth book
2010 Ika & Ibsen - Onda ögat Helena Willis Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9789129670899 2012 Ida, Paul and the nasty giants from the third Hanser ISBN 978-3-446238909 Birgitta Kicherer Children's book
2010 Ika & Ibsen - Bomber och kvantskutt Helena Willis Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9789129672404 2012 Ida, Paul and the poop detectives Hanser ( Munich ) ISBN 978-3-446239135 Birgitta Kicherer Children's book
2011 Ika & Ibsen - Frankensteins katt Helena Willis Rabén & Sjogren ISBN 9789129672244 2013 Ida, Paul and Frankenstein's cat Hanser ( Munich ) ISBN 978-3-446241701 Birgitta Kicherer Children's book , will be published on January 28, 2013
Kaspar Atomragnar och snömannen 2016 Kaspar, Grandpa and the Snow Man Hanser Verlag ( Munich ) ISBN 978-3-423-43035-7 Birgitta Kicherer Children's book

Awards

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ The scent of strawberry chewing gum. In: FAZ.net . March 18, 2003, accessed December 16, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Mikael Engström, translated by Birgitta Kicherer: Brando: There is always something! 2nd Edition. 62245 from dtv-Junior / 62245 from series Hanser. German Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-3-423-62245-5 ( Google Books ).
  3. ↑ Monika Osberghaus: The helpless helpers. In: FAZ.net . August 1, 2009, accessed December 16, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Mikael Engström, translated by Birgitta Kicherer: You won't get me !: Mik's story . Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH Co KG, 2009, ISBN 978-3-446-23533-5 ( Google Books ).
  5. ↑ Franz Lettner: Luchs No. 274: Under the ice cover of the lake. In: zeit.de. October 29, 2009, accessed December 16, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Engström, Mikael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Solna