Popular Music - Softcover

Niemi, Mikael

3.66

9,799 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007145500 ISBN 13: 9780007145508

Publisher: Flamingo, 2003

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‘A wonderfully warm tale of weddings, funerals, marathon sauna contests – and the incomparable thrill of your first kiss, from “the Nick Hornby of the Arctic”.’ Marina Warner, Sunday Times

Its the 1960s, and pop records are gradually finding their way into the eager hands of teenagers in the far north of Sweden. Young Matti dreams of being a rock star – but in the tiny ice-bound village of Pajala, a boy should really spend his time cultivating more manly pursuits, such as hunting elk, drinking moonshine and fighting on dancefloors...

‘Popular Music’ is one of the freshest, funniest debuts of recent years, and winner of the August prize, Sweden’s equivalent of the Man Booker. So wrap up warm and join Matti and the unforgettable community of Pajala in a wonderful tale of weddings, funerals and marathon sauna contests, the incomparable thrill of your first kiss – and of finally hearing the Beatles.

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Review:

From the British reviews:

‘First, let me confess that I was asked to leave the British Library reading room for chuckling – not once, but repeatedly – over this book...Mikael Niemi combines the knowing warmth and vernacular style of, say, Nick Hornby or Roddy Doyle with a bittersweet poetry. Each chapter is a small parable, simple but oceans deep, so that frequently you find you are laughing while having tears in your eyes.’ Glyn Brown, The Times

‘An extraordinary novel: hilarious, ribald, obscene...All the ingredients are there for a tender and bittersweet coming-of-age story: Roddy Doyle meets “Fever Pitch”. But then Mikael Niemi smashes into the memories he has assembled with his pulverising imagination...I’ve never read anything like it.'’ Nicci Gerrard, Observer

‘The intriguing yet charming characters do more than keep you engaged...”Popular Music” paints a clearer picture of a teenage boy obsessed by rock music than any number of list-riddled, thirtysomething London lad-lit books could ever hope to.’ Time Out

‘Hilariously tracks Matti’s rise from the illicit and shocking pleasure of listening to a Beatles single to miming in the garage with a hardboard cut-out guitar...There are nuances to these rites of passage that recall Nick Hornby's “High Fidelity”...the astonishing success of “Popular Music” in Sweden confirms that this sardonic tale of terrible guitar-playing can strike a fresh, jaunty, even heartfelt, chord.’ Independent

Synopsis:

Lovely, funny, Roddy Doyle-esque coming-of-age story set in 1960s Sweden Growing up in the small town of Pajala in the northernmost corner of Sweden can be hard for a boy, and Matti's adolescence is no exception. It's fun to ski, do snuff and drink moonshine, but in this unforgiving arctic wilderness where real men shoot elk and fight on dance floors, you have to be prepared to sit for hours in the hottest sauna imaginable; you must do your best to avoid the latest round of chain thumpings (Anders thumps Nisse; Nisse's big brother thumps Anders; Anders's even bigger brother thumps...) And you must never, ever be less than a man. So when the first Beatles single roars like the breaking of the winter ice into this remote corner of the Arctic Circle, Matti has a choice to make. He'd love to form a band, impress the girls and sing along in broken English to those Sixties Classics Ollyu Nidis Lav and Owatter Shayd Ovpail. But with the menfolk of Pajala looking on, can the two boys really get away with with something as undoubtedly girly as wanting to sing in front of other people while completely sober?

Wrap up warm and join Matti, Niila and the unforgettable community of Pajala in a wonderfully warm tale of weddings and sauna contests, the incomparable thrill of your first kiss -- and of finally hearing the Beatles. Fantastically funny, engaging and charming story of growing up in Sweden in the 1960s. One of the freshest, funniest debuts of recent years. A phenomenal bestseller in Sweden - over half a million sold in pb - and a very popular winner of that country's Booker Prize, the August Prize. Rights sold throughout Europe and USA.

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