Sven Lindqvist

Sven Lindqvist
In 2018
Born(1932-03-28)28 March 1932
Died14 May 2019 (2019-05-15) (aged 87)
NationalitySwedish
OccupationAuthor
Known forExterminate All the Brutes
Spouses
(m. 1956; div. 1986)
(m. 1986)
Children2

Sven Oskar Lindqvist (28 March 1932 – 14 May 2019) was a prolific Swedish author whose 35 books range from essays, aphorisms, autobiography, and documentary prose to travel and reportage. He was educated at Stockholm University, and spent a year as a cultural attaché in Beijing, but spent most of his life as a writer, known for his persistence and independence. In the 1970s he established the public history movement Dig Where You Stand. From the late 1980s he focused on European imperialism, colonialism, racism, genocide, environmental degradation, and war. Among his best-known and most widely admired works are his 1996 discussion of racism, Exterminate All the Brutes, based on a phrase in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and his 2001 A History of Bombing, an intentionally fractured narrative written in 399 short chapters.

The newspaper Svenska Dagbladet described Lindqvist as one of the most important authors in modern Swedish literature.[1] He won many of Sweden's most prestigious literary and journalistic awards.[2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference SvD Obituary 2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hansen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).