Klas Östergren

Klas Östergren (born 20 February 1955) is a Swedish novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and translator.

Östergren had a breakthrough with his fourth novel Gentlemen in 1980. He has been awarded numerous Swedish literary prizes, such as Doblougska priset in 1998 and the grand prize by the literary society, Samfundet De Nio in 2005, as well as being nominated for the Guldbagge Award for Best Screenplay in 1999. His works have been translated to more than ten languages. In 2014 he was elected a member of the Swedish Academy, but resigned from his seat in 2018.

Biography

Östergren was born in 1955 on Lilla Essingen in Stockholm. He was the youngest of four siblings. His father was Finnish and his mother was Swedish. He went to secondary school at Södra Latins gymnasium.

Klas Östergren was soon to turn twenty years old when his first novel, Attila, was published in 1975. He gained critical acclaim and high readership five years later with the novel, Gentlemen. A sequel to the novel, Gangsters, appeared in 2006. Östergren's works, which also includes acclaimed novels such as Den sista cigaretten (2009, "The last cigarette") and short stories, typically depicts odd characters that leads the narrator into a shadowworld of the official society where its own laws and rules is prevailing.