I mean, how hard can it be to read about space travel in Swedish? (Answer: Hard, but so bloody worth it.)Īniara begins with the launch of one of the gigantic ships that are transporting people from the no longer inhabitable Earth to Mars to begin a new life there. The only copy available in my local library was in Swedish, but I decided that it would have to do. However, the name stuck in my mind and about a month later I checked the book out from the library. The response was immediate – Aniara by Harry Martinson –, so much so that at first I thought he making a joke. Once upon a time, in a far far corner of a nice Irish pub I asked my reader friend to recommend me a good science fiction book (he’s an expert, you see).
It has been translated into seven languages and adapted into a popular avant-garde opera. Aniara is a book of prophecy, a panoramic view of humanity’s possible fate. A malfunction knocks the craft off course, taking these would-be Mars colonists on an irreversible journey into deep space. Aniara is the story of a luxurious space ship, loaded with 8,000 evacuees, fleeing an Earth made uninhabitable by Man’s technological arrogance. The great Swedish writer Harry Martinson published his masterpiece, Aniara, during the height of the Cold War – right after the Soviet Union announced that it had exploded the hydrogen bomb.
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