WINNER OF THE SWEDISH ACADEMY'S NORDIC PRIZE 2023A timely and provocative novel from the internationally celebrated novelist Sj n, about a mysterious Icelandic neo-Nazi and the enduring global allure of fascism. In England in 1962, an Icelandic man is found dead on a train. In his possession, policemen find a map on which a swastika has been drawn with a red pen. Who was he, and where was he going? Based on the life of one of the ringleaders of a little-known neo-Nazi group that operated in Reykjav k in the late fifties and early sixties, Red Milk explores what shapes a young man and the enduring, disturbing allure of Nazi ideology. In Red Milk, acclaimed author Sj n tells the story of Gunnar Kampen, the founder of Iceland's antisemitic nationalist party, who has ties to a burgeoning network of neo-Nazi groups across the globe. Told in a series of scenes and letters spanning Kampen's lifetime--from his childhood in Reykjav k during the Second World War, in a household strongly opposed to Hitler, through his education, his political radicalization, and his final clandestine mission to England--this taut and potent novel urges readers to confront the international legacy of twentieth-century fascism, and the often undetectable forces that drive some people to extremism.
