International 2017

Leif G W Persson
tr. Neil Smith
The Dying Detective
winner
Doubleday

After a number of Backstrom adventures, what a pleasure to reach back in this series, and reflect on the gifts, various, of Persson’s earlier cast of mature characters. I quote Henry Reed’s parody of T. S. Eliot, ‘As we get older, we do not get any younger’. We do not, but perhaps we can remain ourselves until the end.