(1926-1975) Swedish writer, best known for his ten-volume Martin Beck crime novel series, all written with his wife Maj Sjöwall (1935- ). His Near-Future sf thrillers, all of which interrogate the form they use, include Mord på 31:a våningen (1964; trans Joan Tate as Murder on the 31st Floor 1966; vt The Thirty-First Floor 1967), in which intrusive detective work and the intrusions of a totalitarian state are seen as nearly indistinguishable, and which was filmed as Kamikaze 1989 (1982); Generalerna (1965; trans Joan Tate as The Generals 1974), set around the court-martial on an isolated Island of a soldier who has apparently "blasphemed" against the military Dystopia that society has become; and Stälspranget (1968; trans Joan Tate as The Steel Spring 1970), in which an exile from a despotic Sweden returns to find the land decimated by a deadly plague. [JC]
Per Wahlöö
born Gothenburg, Sweden: 5 August 1926
died Malmoe, Sweden: 22 June 1975
works
- Mord på 31:a våningen (Stockholm, Sweden: P A Norstedt & Soners, 1964) [hb/]
- Generalerna (Stockholm, Sweden: P A Norstedt & Soners, 1965) [hb/]
- The Generals (New York: Pantheon, 1974) [trans by Joan Tate of the above: hb/Gary Tong]
- Stålsprånget (Stockholm, Sweden: P A Norstedt & Soners, 1968) [hb/]
- The Steel Spring (London: Michael Joseph, 1970) [trans by Joan Tate of the above: hb/]
links
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