Hachette India

Kindness

Marlaine Delargy

A shipping container is mysteriously dumped in the Swedish port town of Norrtalje. Due to their ignorance of its ownership it isn't until a week has passed that the authorities can have it forced open. There the remains of twenty eight refugees are found, a situation of unrelenting horror. Not only that; a black sludge pours out which contaminates the river and is the cause of a new, sickening dread that affects Norrtalje's inhabitants, causing a lack of trust, aggression, violence. It seems like an end to Kindness.

Six characters are at the centre of this extraordinary novel, six people in search of love and connection, whose extraordinary qualities will confront the metaphysical illness consuming their town.

'As Lindqvist has increasingly devoted himself to the subtle plumbing of the human soul he has become a distinctive and urgent voice in contemporary literature' - Svenska Dagbladet

Marlaine Delargy

John Ajvide Lindqvist is a Swedish author, born 1968, grew up in Blackeberg, a suburb to Stockholm. He started out as a conjurer and came in second in the Nordic card trick championship, then he was a stand-up comedian for twelve years. Three of his other novels, Let the Right One In, Handling the Undead and Harbour have been translated into English and published by Quercus. Marlaine Delargy works as a translator and adult learning support tutor. She has translated novels by Asa Larsson and Johan Theorin, among others, and serves on the editorial board of the Swedish Book Review. She lives in Shropshire, England.