A Swedish translation of the French novel "Mannen som läste böcker" (original title "L'homme qui lisait des livres") by Rachide Benzine has been released. The novel, translated by Cecilia Franklin, tells the story of Nabil, a fictional Palestinian book reader born in 1948, whose life from birth to death reflects 70 years of Palestinian history. Nabil, who has lost most of his family to violence and spent 20 years in an Israeli prison, finds solace and freedom through reading books from various cultures and eras, including works by Homer, Shakespeare, and Mahmoud Darwish.
The author, Rachide Benzine, is a Moroccan-French writer, researcher, dramatist, and Islamologist who has achieved success in France. The book is described as a short novel that does not delve deeply into character portrayal or reach stylistic heights but allows readers to encounter a Palestinian rarely seen in media. The novel was reviewed by SVT Kultur's literature critic Ingrid Elam.