Malin Haawind on the Literature Scene

Author Malin Haawind talks about her writing and her latest book, The One Who Follows a Star Does Not Turn Back.

In the summer of 1914, the cook and shoemaker's daughter Malin Blomsterberg hikes from Skåne to Östergötland. The goal of the hike is Ellen Key's Strand by Lake Vättern, and the intention is to stay. Because Malin wants to get close to the great minds and thinkers, and most of all close to the author Ellen Key. It happens as she wishes, she becomes Ellen's faithful servant, disciple and friend, secretary and confidant. But with the great gratitude also comes the fear of not being good enough, and of losing everything.

The One Who Follows a Star Does Not Turn Back is a gripping novel about the housekeeper Malin Blomsterberg who lived next to the world-famous Ellen Key, but who carried a world of her own inside. It is a story about the limits of work and the psyche, about class and the longing for belonging in a time when everything is about to change.

Malin Haawind is an ethnologist, journalist, author and freelance writer. In addition to her writing, she also holds writing courses and workshops. She also translates from English.
She has previously published the trilogy They Came from the Islands (2021), And the Sea Gave Again (2022), and Into the Rocky Shore (2023). It is the story of a family who makes a journey to a public housing project, from small coastal communities on the islands of Gotland and Tjörn, to the modern industrial city of Södertälje.

Free tickets can be picked up at the library from 4/3.

In collaboration with ABF Österlen.