According to Kristianstadsbladet, the language is one of the most striking aspects of 'Kött', not because it shines or crackles, but because it is so transparent. David Szalay works with short, information-dense sentences and writes realistic dialogue where many lines consist only of 'okay', according to Kristianstadsbladet. The best way to do justice to such a style is to abandon all ambitions to spruce up or fill in, and Amanda Svensson has approached the deceptively simple original in just that way, according to Kristianstadsbladet.
Svensson often succeeds in recreating a text with the same studied nonchalance as the original, according to Kristianstadsbladet. For instance, Svensson refrains from rephrasing in a more conventional way, as when the somewhat terse formulation 'The way he tells the story it’s obvious that he enjoyed watching that' is transferred to 'Sättet han berättar historien avslöjar att han tyckte det var kul att se', according to Kristianstadsbladet. According to Kristianstadsbladet, David Szalay described the original line as showing that the narrator enjoyed watching.
The way he tells the story it’s obvious that he enjoyed watching that
This kind of careful translation work shows that the demands for precision are just as high when the language is 'simple' as when it is refined, according to Kristianstadsbladet. The story begins in the middle of a step and continues in the same style, according to Kristianstadsbladet. On the first page, readers meet István, a Hungarian teenage boy who has just changed schools and is searching for his place, according to Kristianstadsbladet.
A few pages later, István begins a relationship with the middle-aged woman in the apartment opposite, which triggers a chain of events with major consequences, according to Kristianstadsbladet. Throughout the book, István continues to end up in circumstances where he is the victim, or which he exploits to his advantage, depending on interpretation, according to Kristianstadsbladet. As an adult, István moves to Britain, marries the woman in a family where he was previously a bodyguard, and becomes wealthy, according to Kristianstadsbladet.
Sättet han berättar historien avslöjar att han tyckte det var kul att se
István is surrounded by people who want to shape him according to their own mold, according to Kristianstadsbladet.