- The Lingonal Manack is everywhere. Somewhere I saw such an almanac and then the idea was hatched: a short story collection with a chronological theme, says Sven Olov Karlsson to the Cultural News.

In the twelve short stories, Sven Olov Karlsson makes an impact in various parts of Sweden, in the city, in the suburbs and in the countryside. In the introductory short story Kvadrat we meet the homeless Svea who is in a basement while the New Year's bells ring outside.

- You may think that it is an inaccessible short story, that it is difficult. But I think it's a bit of a test, those who manage to get through the first novel have earned themselves the rest of the book.

A comment that closures are called "bets"

In the Yearbook, the light is directed at those who usually live and seem far from the spotlight. Among other things, the reader will meet childcare worker Siri, who brings to life the perhaps most true cliché of the care profession, the one about how the work both struggles and gives.

The November novel is about a freelance journalist with kidney stones who, after one night at a crowded emergency room, is at Skogskyrkogården. There is extensive tree shoveling. Or is it an "environmental initiative"?

- It is a comment that you call closures or shavings something different than they really are. When you close a library in Stockholm, you call it a "venture" for example, says Per Olov Karlsson.

Could write the book thanks to the Ivar Lo award

The standalone short stories together form a bigger story about contemporary Sweden, about everything from car cruising to climate change, about care queues and class divisions.

Sven Olov Karlsson was able to write the book thanks to the prize money from the trade union movement's Ivar Lo award, which he won in 2018. Sven Olov Karlsson is proud to follow in the footsteps of author Ivar Lo-Johansson and he is happy to call himself a work writer.

- The author's task is to depict problems and injustices and shed light on them. That's what I'm trying to do with this book, says Sven Olov Karlsson.