Death on the Beach

Per Högselius grew up in Stockholm, Sweden. As a child he dreamed about becoming an astronomer, which led him to study physics at university. In his teens he discovered palaeontology, history and literature. A hopeless romantic, he wished he had lived in the nineteenth century. He became a passionate traveller, targeting not so much the distant corners of the world but the nearby post-Cold War lands of the Baltic Sea region. His journeys there became the basis for his first non-academic book in Swedish, the historical travelogue Östersjövägar (Baltic Sea Paths, 2007). Later on, he fell in love with the North Sea and subsequently with China. Meanwhile Per has pursued an academic career in the history of science, technology and environment. A professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, he enjoys juxtaposing different genres and styles of writing in exploring human experiences with technology and nature. He writes regularly for the leading Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet Agnes Broomé has a PhD in Translation Studies from University College London. Her translations include August Prize winners The Expedition by Bea Uusma, The Gospel of the Eels by Patrik Svensson, and Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren, and the 2022 Petrona Award winner Maria Adolfsson’s Fatal Isles. She is director of the Scandinavian Studies program at Harvard.

Preface
7


1 Caravaggio
9


2 The Beach Killer
22


3 Medusa
37


4 Engulfed
51


5 Katabasis
62


6 Longing
75


7 Terror
84


8 The Bluff
96


9 In the Tidal Zone
108


10 A Realm of Sorrow
121


11 Flight
133


12 Islam of the Sea
143


13 Where the Sand is Lead
157


14 Post-Apocalypse
169


15 The Flood
178


Notes
193


List of Illustrations
205