Nature in the Nordics
Nordic Literature Week 2022 invites you to read aloud on the theme of nature in the Nordics. The love and attitude to our Nordic nature is something that permeates our culture and takes a large place in nordic stories and literary tradition. The Nordic nature is not only something that unites us, but also tells us something about the diversity and richness that exists in our dark corner of the Earth. The recently closed borders have meant that we have no longer been able to travel to tropical beaches, but instead have had to dig where we stand. From volcanoes in the west, ice glaciers in the north, yellow rapeseed fields in the south to a thousand lakes in the east. The relationship between nature and man is central to this year's read-aloud books.
The Nordic nature in this year's read-aloud
books
The picture book If you meet a
bear is a collaboration between Finnish-Swedish
Malin Kivelä and Linda Bondestam with Danish Martin Glaz
Serup. The book is nominated for the Nordic Council's Children and
Young Peoples' Literature Prize 2022. The book is based on the
title's question of what to do if you meet a bear, both in an
educational but above all a parodic way. The book treats the issue
of nature as an idyllic place where city dwellers can go out with
the mushroom basket in full swing, but also asks the question of
how wild nature really gets to be?
This year, the adult readers can enjoy the
book The Gospel of the Eels: A Father, a Son and
the World's Most Enigmatic Fish by the Swedish
author Patrik Svensson. It is a book about how the eel brings a son
and his father together and about how the mystery of the eel can be
compared to man. It is a story about origin, destiny, how life
should be lived and the inevitable and unmanageable death.