Sjöberg, Lina 1973–

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Sjöberg, Lina 1973–

PERSONAL:

Born 1973. Education: Studied at Uppsala University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail—lina.sjoberg@teol.uu.se.

CAREER:

Writer.

WRITINGS:

Resa till Port Said (novel; title means ‘Traveling to Port Said"), A. Bonniers (Stockholm, Sweden), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Swedish writer Lina Sjöberg was born in 1973. She undertook doctoral studies in theology at Uppsala University, in Uppsala, Sweden, the ecclesiastical and religious center of Sweden. She published her first novel, Resa till Port Said, Swedish for ‘Traveling to Port Said,’ in 2005. The novel is centered around letters and correspondence written on the ship from Ethiopia to Egypt's Port Said from Sjöberg's grandparents and associates. Two women, Sanna and Maria, in northern Sweden, both near the ends of their lives, reflect on the contents of the letters and try to come to terms with events in their past before they die. The letters show the effects European colonialism had on Africa through the impressions and experiences of Swedish missionaries and doctors.

Laura Wideburg, a Swedish translator based in Seattle, Washington, reviewed Resa till Port Said in 2006 in World Literature Today. Wideburg found the fictional account ‘carefully constructed.’ Wideburg took special note of the letters and their role throughout the text, adding that readers would eventually begin ‘to anticipate each letter as holding another clue to the story, and by the end, a certain understanding of the tragedy that has taken place leads to resolution and a satisfactory conclusion."