Sara Lundberg

In Glömdagen (“The Day of Forgetting”, not published in English), Lundberg shows once again that she is a master of putting the child’s perspective in focus. This can be seen on the cover, where a parent bends towards a child in order to meet the child. The child’s gaze is locked with the parent’s, and the parent’s gaze is locked with the child’s.

Lundberg writes with warmth, and recognition radiates from the text. It’s a day when nothing goes as anyone had imagined or perhaps even wanted. It’s a day meant to be forgotten right from the outset, but a day which no one will ever forget.

The pages are colourful works of art that spread to fill the space. They depict everyday life so that you can really feel it. Although the people and situations are recognisable, with the brush in Lundberg’s hand they gain colour and movement and become something new.

In a postlude that offers a counterpoint, Lundberg sketches a grand continuation in black and white, even after the original protagonists have fallen sleep. The main character, now a tiara, has been left behind but is far from forgotten. It becomes a game, a fantasy, with flashing allusions to other well-known works.

Sara Lundberg (born in 1971) studied at Konstfack and the Swedish Royal Institute of Art and is a well-established illustrator and award-winning author, including the August Prize twice, most recently in 2017 for the Fågeln i mig flyger vart den vill, which also won the 2017 Snöbollen Prize for Swedish picture book of the year.

Glömdagen is the first book after Fågeln i mig flyger vart den vill that Sara has both written and illustrated.