Popular Music

Growing up in a small town in the northernmost corner of Sweden can be hard for a boy, and Matti's adolescence is no exception. Wrap up warm and join the community of Pajala in a tale of weddings, sauna contests, the thrill of a first kiss - and of finally hearing the Beatles.

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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.