The Library of Lost Books

In the Library of Lost Books, silence reigns, but if you listen closely, you can still hear voices. Our narrator is a former archaeologist and publishing editor; the last man to read the works of forgotten authors. Do you remember the French Symbolist writer Aurélien de Kempf? No? What about Saul B. Johnson, the Vietnam War veteran who wrote brutal detective novels about violence, revenge, and justice, and the young genius John Lundström from northern Sweden whom he admired?

Today, none of them are read; their books are letters that have lost their credibility. In thirteen interconnected stories, the narrator seeks to identify a line of forgotten authors, while simultaneously taking us on a winding journey through the history of literature and reading.

Christopher Lindor is a writer, translator, and literary critic. His book The Mask was shortlisted for the August Prize in 2010, and his novel September (2013) received unanimous critical acclaim.

[Lindor] blends reality, dreams, and sorrow. And he does it convincingly, beautifully, and skillfully.

—Jonas Thinte, Dagens Nyheter

The work is a thousand wonderful pages long, its texts brimming with creativity and inspiration. /.../ Its scope seems vast, and everything in it is of a high standard. The whole work is both playful and profound, as naive as it is insightful. /.../ "The Library of Lost Books" is a beautiful ode to literature.