Feminist autofiction from one of Sweden’s blazing talents.

Blending autofiction and essay, The Bear Woman is a journey of feminism and literary detective work spanning centuries and continents. In the 1540s, a young French noblewoman, Marguerite de la Rocque, was abandoned on an island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with her maidservant and her lover. In present-day Stockholm, an author and mother becomes captivated by the image of Marguerite sheltered in a dark cave after her companions have died.

This image soon becomes an obsession. She must find out the real story of the woman she calls the Bear Woman. But so much in this history is written so as to gloss over male violence. And the maps and other sources she consults are at times undecipherable.

Karolina Ramqvist explores what it means to write history—and to live it.

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Saskia Vogel is a Swedish translator. Her translations include Kim Novak Never Swam in Lake Genesaret by Håkan Nesser (World Editions, 2015), Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? By Katrine Kielos (Portobello Books, 2015). She is also the Swedish series editor and translator for Readux Books and a former publicist at Granta Books. She lives in California.

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“Ramqvist skillfully blends a story of survival with an autofictional meditation on womanhood...It adds up to a careful study of a woman’s writing life.” — Publishers Weekly

“Karolina Ramqvist writes with frosty precision the kind of literature that is unforgettable. Her portraits of women hit deep into bone and marrow.” — Dorthe Nors

“Ramqvist’s acute rendering of embodied sensual experience combined with her evocation of her double character’s increasingly desperate circumstances create a story of high tension, startling insights, and lasting resonance.” — Siri Hustvedt

“One of my favorite discoveries from this year.” — Samanta Schweblin

“Ramqvist is a serious contender for the Swedish literary limelight.” — Shelf Awareness