“The Colony” by Annika Norlin (2023), the debut novel of a Swedish pop star, translated into English by Alice E. Olsson (2025)
In the spring of 2023, a lone, burned-out journalist escapes the city and heads up to a remote village to live in a tent, trying for a bit of a nature cure, a la Henry Thoreau. While contemplating her anxiety and the overstimulation of urban life, she chances one morning to observe a odd group of humans. They are singing off-key around a campfire, roasting a bird they had just plucked, and calling out “thank you” over and over again as they pick the meat off its bones.
Witnessing that scene, Emelie is drawn into their story – and takes us with her. Who are these seven people? What is their relationship to each other? Is it a cult? A commune? A colony of ants, each with a role and a queen to lead them?
The backstory of how they came to live together, off the grid, outside society and its structures for years, is told in short chapters, shifting in time and focus between the group and the individuals. Each has a different reason to hide, dealing with different levels of trauma and transgression. An animal activist, a woman convicted of manslaughter, a cantor son of Hungarian Jews haunted by the Holocaust, an adopted entomologist, a handsome bouncer, an unwanted child, and a young man with a mentally ill mother.
Emelie is the classic “stranger who comes to town” (or, to the woods, in this case) and disrupts the community.
On her website Annika Norlin has a page called “Some thoughts I had while writing Stacken/The Colony” where she lists the following themes:
- Humans and Animals in Groups
- Stimuli
- Ants and Roles
- Children and the Forest
- Personal Power
- Where can You Best Step Away from Society?
- Being with Others
Under that last heading, she says this:
First and foremost, the book is about my great interest in how we, as humans, affect each other—in groups of two or in groups of many.
How romantic love, or other types of groupings, make us better, or worse, or paralyzed.
How they push us to do things we never thought we could—or would.
For better or worse.
What about Annika Norlin the musician? On her website, she provides a link to a Spotify playlist of some of her songs in English. Besides publishing and performing under her own name, she also produces work under the projects Säkert! and Hello Saferide. You can watch some of her music videos on YouTube.
Title: The Colony (2025)
Author: Annika Norlin
- “Annika Norlin (1977) is a Swedish writer of all trades. In her home country best known as a songwriter and performer, she started out as a journalist but is also a psychologist dropout. In 2020, she released her first book, Jag ser allt du gör, a collection of short stories. Stacken (2023) is her first novel. It’s currently sold over 150 000 copies in her home land Sweden and won two of the country’s most prestigious literary awards. Stacken is currently planned for publishing in 15 different languages, and movie rights have been sold.” [From her website]
Translator: Alice E. Olsson – Bilingual translator, writer and editor (Swedish / English), Åre, Jämtland County, Sweden
Publisher: Europa Editions (464 pp.) | March 25, 2025 | 9798889660828 / originally published in 2023 by Weyler Förlag as Stacken.
Reviews:
- Kirkus – starred review
- “Norlin’s writing (as translated by Olsson) is clever and incisive, poking fun at modern society and the woodland community in equal measure… Ultimately, this is a treatise on humanity, on the things people need and the power and frailty of human connection. This is a novel that will stick with you.”
- New York Times — review by Joumana Khatib, Mar 24, 2025
- “My admiration of “The Colony” is equally an appreciation for Alice E. Olsson, whose work to bring the story into English is so precise and vibrant that I often forgot I was reading a translation. Too often novels packed with this many ideas sacrifice emotion in favor of mounting a ponderous argument; Norlin instead writes visceral episodes that speak for themselves. (How to sever an umbilical cord in the forest? With your teeth.) The story’s open-ended questions — about the power of charisma and love and the boundaries between the individual and the greater good — arise organically, without forcing stale answers.”
- Los Angeles Times – review by Charles Arrowsmith, Mar 23, 2025
- ““The Colony” was a bestselling, prize-winning sensation in Sweden, where its author has enjoyed a long career as a pop star. On the face of it, the book’s appeal to an American audience is obvious. The search for meaning, authenticity and adventure in the wilderness is a Great American trope. From the canon, not just Thoreau but also Melville’s Ishmael sought a change of scene when life became too much; more recent examples might include Chris McCandless in “Into the Wild” and memoirist Cheryl Strayed. These works typically offer sociopolitical commentary along with the fishing and sleeping bags — and “The Colony” is no different.”
Awards:
- Vi Literature Award
- Swedish Radio Novel Prize (Sveriges Radios Romanpris)
- New York Times Notable Book of 2025
- NPR Best Book of 2025
- Booklist Best Book of 2025
Katie Day is an international school teacher-librarian in Singapore and has been an American expatriate for almost 40 years. She is currently on the GLLI Board and has served as the chair of the GLLI Translated YA Book Prize and co-chair of the Neev Book Award in India — as well as being heavily involved in international school librarian initiatives such as the Red Dot Book Awards in Singapore and the Siam Book Awards in Thailand.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of GLLI.
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