1947: When Now Begins

"Time doesn’t quite go the way you think"—that’s how Swedish writer and journalist Elisabet Ohlin begins her narrative. She is a laureate of the August Prize for best nonfiction (2011) and the Ryszard Kapuściński Prize for best literary reportage (2013). In her 1947 biography— the year when postwar Europe began to be rebuilt, colonies gained independence, and women were emancipated; when the foundations of the Cold War were also laid and slow-acting mines were set in the Middle East—Osbrink interweaves quotes from the press and published sources, oral memories, and interviews with a masterfully constructed lyrical voice of the narrator—part impartial observer, part caring conversationalist.