ANDEN I MASKINEN – THE SPIRIT IN THE MACHINE
By John Ajvide Lindqvist
SWEDEN IS SHAKEN by a horrific attack. During the intermission of Hamlet at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, a female suicide bomber kills over 40 people, and injures even more.
A NATIONAL TRAUMA is a fact.
JULIA MALMROS HAS returned to the police force due to writer’s block, and she is assigned tasks vaguely connected to the bombing. Soon, she finds herself getting closer to the centre of the investigation.
KIM RIBBING IS having the mansion that once belonged to his sadistic grandfather converted into a refugee center. The building is attacked and when he starts his own investigation he finds links to the bombing.
THEN: ANOTHER ATTACK. This time, a mosque is blown up during evening prayers, with even more victims than at the theatre. Emotions run high and mutually hostile groups are formed. Sweden becomes a divided country, where true Swedes and Islamists incite each other.
THE SPIRIT IN THE MACHINE is a tender yet action-packed suspense novel about polarisation and radicalisation, deeply rooted in the present.
ABOUT THE BOOK
First published by Ordfront, Sweden 2025
RIGHTS SOLD TO
Brazil, Editora Alaude
Denmark, Gyldendal
Finland, Gummerus
Germany, DTV
Norway, Gyldendal
Sweden, Ordfront
Ukraine, Bohdan Publishing House
US (WE), AmazonCrossing
REVIEWS
I am particularly struck by John Ajvide Lindqvist’s ability to capture destructive human insecurity; our inability to actually talk to one another, and to listen. In short – this is a good crime novel, excellent reading, exciting in every way. Without reservations.
– Upsala Nya Tidning
Ajvide Lindqvist tells his story at a fast pace but with attention to detail, and it is rare to plow through 485 pages of a novel so quickly. […] There is plenty of warmth and humor here (I laugh out loud several times), and it is overall obvious that John Ajvide Lindqvist had fun writing The Spirit in the Machine. That joy rubs off on the reader.
– Jönköpings-Posten
It is rather the portrait of people that engages. His eye for the individual within the group, his sense of everyone’s hang-ups and anxieties. […] Best depicted, as is often the case with John Ajvide Lindqvist, are the youngest. Astrid Helander, the survivor of the first book’s archipelago massacre, is the story’s tenderly grieving, cruel, deceptively truthful, and wise heart. Ester and Algot, steadfast friends, compete for her. Or are they seeking each other?
– Dagens Nyheter
The Spirit in the Machine is a breathtaking novel with Ajvide’s unique combination of dark humour, suspense, brilliant dialogue, and an original cast of characters.
– BTJ
Full speed ahead, violent almost from the start and constantly page-turner-friendly action – always with humour within reach, as a vent in existence. This is an author who knows how to entertain an audience and also lead them through the darkness. […] when Ajvide Lindqvist finally puts a period to this adventure, it is with a stylish ending.
– Göteborgs-Posten
BOOKS
Fiction