Linda Sturesson Stabel
With her words, Linda Sturesson Stabel sews together stories of feel bad and feel good. They encompass darkness and light, sadness and humour, making readers feel discomfort but foremost pleasure and recognition that brings out laughter. Dark humour is a signum in her writing. Characters are often tragicomic and far from perfect, they are simply human and often unfiltered in their expressions. Focus is on life's ups and downs and relationships. She wants her writing to entertain, trigger reflection, and challenge ingrained thought patterns about the life we live and the society we live in – in lighthearted and accessible manner. Stories are set in past and present, and in different places.
"When I write, I take some cells from myself and my surroundings to create viable embryos. When I sit down at the computer, the cells then divide on their own, become their own bodies and start living their own lives."
Linda started writing as a child and has continued ever since. Her first work was a four-page handwritten magic story that probably wouldn't enchant anyone today, but it is still in a cardboard box somewhere.
Currently, she is finalising her latest novel about a woman with a gene mutation (but without having superhero powers), a pressing desperation and a strange craze. In parallel, she has recently started working on a book project together with others. What this twisted book beyond reason is about and who the other people are is yet a well-known secret.
Linda was born and raised in Sweden and have lived in the country all her life, but she has roots and a foot in eastern Europe, foremost Poland. Growing up with a parent origin from another country, she was taught the importance of language and of managing the language. When Linda Sturesson Stabel does not write novels, she writes scientific articles based on her research. She works as a research specialist at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and are the principal investigator of a research project. When not writing at all, she can be found at a café where she watches and eavesdrops, in the audience at a concert or at the theater, just enjoying. She tries to spend time with her children, but since one has moved away from home and the other is also coming of age soon, they have other interests than spending so much time with their mother. However, Linda also has a husband and friends who she is more than happy to hang out with.
Discounting the positive
In the ruins of post-war Warsaw, a two-year-old girl sits on a staircase waiting for her mother to finish work. The girl is dirty, smelly, and hungry. Ignored by her mother, the girl is taken into care. She arrives at an all-girls orphanage run by nuns, where strict rules dominate, workdays stretch endlessly, and punishments are severe. And at the village school, the orphanage children are treated as second-class citizens. Yet, things can still deteriorate further. The girl is forced to return home to her fractured family, and her life descends into a nightmare of abuse and neglect. Carrying the weight of trauma, she eventually flees Poland to rebuild her shattered existence in Sweden.
Decades later in Stockholm, Alexandra is reluctantly diagnosed as bipolar but refuses to accept the label thrust upon her. Yet searching for a community, she joins a writing course organized by a patient association. What begins as a creative course quickly unravels as the eccentric participants transform each session into raw emotional confession as if it was a competition where the person suffering the most also is best suited to become a writer. It takes hours to even get to the writing tips themselves. Alexandra does not know whether she loves or hates the other participants but is rather sure she is not one of them. Or? Together with family and friends, she tries to put her pieces in place.
Between the unflinching pages of this haunting narrative lies a masterful balance of dark humor and brutal honesty—a powerful testament to the resilience of those who survive their own histories.
Quotes and reviews
"Sometimes I come across books that would have been widely discussed had they been written by a famous author. "Discounting the Positive" by Linda P. Sturesson is one such book. It is a partially dark story about poverty, sexual abuse, and physical violence, yet with a clever framing narrative. A patient association for people with mental health issues offers a writing course that Alexandra joins. We follow the participants through her eyes, encountering a spectrum of people who are easily recognizable. We all have such people in our lives. An incredibly difficult theme is balanced with humor and flowing language. I know nothing more about the author than what appears on the book cover. Linda P. Sturesson, where are you? Your book deserves to be reviewed in daily newspapers, both criticized and praised. Discussed and questioned. Celebrated and booed. Because it is impossible to shield oneself from its impact."
"I often laughed at the situations and line breaks between the characters in the book"
"I must admit that I found some of the depictions of the girl's life in Warsaw very distressing."
"I found myself reading faster and faster. Felt physically affected."
"The book and Linda P. Sturessons's way of using language captivates me. She weaves together two narratives into a cohesive whole, while the book moves with perfect balance between tragedy and comedy. There is also a thread where we follow the inner workings of the protagonist's mind as she struggles with bipolar disorder. The book is powerful and remarkably authentic. It addresses difficult subjects and doesn't leave anyone unmoved."
"People sometimes talk about a book's first sentence, but after reading this one, I want to advocate for this book's final sentence, and indeed, for the entire book."
"Whether it's autofiction or pure fantasies, it's very well told. No credibility issues."
Original title: Diskvalificering av det positiva
Publication: Mormor Förlag April 2019
Pages: 252
Rights sold: All rights available
Reading material: Sample translation
More fiction Authors
