Ich bin Malin. Mit neuer Rechtschreibung

by Peter Pohl

Titta på klasskortet från trean! Där är Mattias och där är Tina-E och Tina-N och så hon... den där... vad hette hon?

Somliga minns man inte namnet på. Malin är sådan. Somliga glömmer man väldigt fort, nästan genast. Malin är sådan. Men allt vänder den dag då Gurra sparkar in en fotboll genom fönstret. Han fick in världens träff, men åt fel håll, så att säga. Och Malin råkade stå innanför och titta och fick allt splittret över sig.

Malin riktigt kände att hon föddes framför honom, att hon framkallades ur sin osynlighet av Gurras blick och blev någon.

Malins kung Gurra är en intensiv kärleksroman som väcker starka känslor.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Peter Pohl was born in 1940 in Germany. His father died in World War II. After the war, Pohl and his Swedish mother moved to Sweden, where he's lived ever since. In 1975, Pohl graduated and became a professor in Numerical analysis. Five years later he started filming, and with success: he won various prizes for his work. His writing career started in 1983. Pohl's themes are sad: themes like death, bullying, loneliness are often part of his books, and almost none of his books have a happy ending. Some of his books have autobiographical elements (the Rainbow series) and some others are based on true stories that came to him directly or indirectly. Some of his books were originally published as adult literature but later recategorised as books for youth.

Reviews

[Kaia Landelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a kid this was one of my favourite authors. I read this book a hundred times, checking it out from the library, and when I got older I bought a copy just to have it. Peter Pohl writes a lot about vulnerable kids; neglected kids, abused kids, grieving kids, kids acting out and being labelled difficult and impossible, and so on, and although some of his books are super artsy and hard to follow some, like this one, is easy, quick and really heartbreaking.

This is the story of Malin, a girl who nobody realises exists. She has a family and a home, and all those things, but she's excruciatingly lonely and hates it. The first book details this carefully, and breaks your heart. The second half shows her making friends with a boy in her class. He smashes a window with a football by mistake, and she happens to be standing in the way. In the shower of glass shards and the small wounds from them she suddenly becomes visible. Noticeable.

Teachers are horrified, because what used to be "such a nice, quiet girl" is suddenly a trouble maker, and they all blame Gurra, which is the boy's name. Little by little you find out more about him, mainly by the things you don't find out. He's from a broken home, has nobody who cares about him, and he flat out won't talk about it. At all. It's quite beautiful the way it's made clear by not talking about it.

This book was really important to me as a kid. As a shy, quiet girl who had few friends I identified with Malin a lot, and wished a Gurra would come along and make me visible too. (Spoiler: didn't happen.) So I'm very grateful the suck fairy didn't visit and that I still love his book.

Unfortunately it hasn't been translated to English.

[Matilda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool zum lesen

[Charlotte Larsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very powerful and moving book. I read it in my childhood and the class perspective, the friendship and the outsider's perspective were all important aspects. I recommend it.
The interaction on the ice is something I will always remember.
Wearing jeans with holes in the in winter.
The evocative imagery of the office materials being compared to candy.

It is interesting that such a Swedish book was written by someone with roots in Germany.