The White City
Karin knew what she was getting herself into when she fell for John, the high-flying gangster and love of her life. But she never imagined things would turn out like this. John is gone and the coke-filled parties, seemingly endless flow of money, and high social status she previously enjoyed have been replaced by cut telephone lines, cut heat, and cut cash. All that is left of Karin’s former life is the big house John bought for her. Well, one more thing remains: John’s daughter, the child Karin once swore she would never bring into their dangerous world.
Now Karin sits alone with baby Dream in her drafty fortress as the days go by. She has drifted apart from the other mobster girlfriends with whom she used to be close and the old promise of the group being a family has proved alarmingly empty. With the authorities zeroing in on organized crime, John’s shady legacy is catching up with her, and the house is about to be seized. She used to be driven by desire, but now her life is reduced to filling the most basic of needs – and the money is running out. Over the course of a few, nerve-wracking days, Karin is forced to take measures on her own in order to claim what she sees as rightfully hers.
The White City (Den vita staden) is both one woman’s battle to pull herself up from the paralyzing depth of despair and an arresting study of what it means to lose control – over your body, your life, and your fate. Loyalties shift in the blink of an eye and people are easily discarded in this taut and elegantly realized novel from one of Sweden’s most prominent writers. Karolina Ramqvist unites slow-burning psychological suspense with a sophisticated and dreamlike literary style to create a novel that, at a mere 176 pages, is packed like a punch that leaves the reader reeling.
The White City is a stand-alone sequel to The Girlfriend (Flickvännen), Ramqvists award-winning novel from 2009, and is one of the most anticipated Swedish titles of 2015. In September, 2015, Ramqvist was awarded the prestigious P.O. Enquist Literary Prize for The White City. The novel was also shortlisted for Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet‘s Literary Prize.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Czech Republic, Kniha Zlin
Denmark, Tiderne Skifter
Estonia, Eesti Raamat
Germany, Ullstein
Norway, Gyldendal
Spain, Anagrama
Sweden, Norstedts
UK, Grove Press
US, Grove Atlantic