“In a time when the calls for stricter penalties are getting louder and the overcrowded prisons are expanding at record speed, it is more relevant than ever to portray and review the Swedish correctional system, something Fanny Klang, after several years of working on the floor within the agency, does with great insight and clarity in her debut novel Closed Institution, which succeeds with the art of being both a leaded contribution to the debate on a burning social issue and sensationally good literature.”
With this justification, Fanny Klang is today awarded Jan Myrdal’s small prize – the Robespierre Prize.
In the book Closed Institution, she breaks new ground by depicting the Swedish penal system, a workplace depiction from the inside that until now has been absent in Swedish literature.
At the same time, she connects to both a fine tradition of workplace depictions in novel form, where her book joins, for example, the modern classic The Yard by Kristian Lundberg about slave-like conditions in Malmö’s car port or why not 2015 Robespierre Prize laureate Sara Beicher’s I’m Not Really Supposed to Work Here about elderly care, and to a type of investigative journalism in disguise, primarily associated with Günter Wallraff’s reports from the 1970s onwards but which stretches back to Ester Blenda Nordström’s A Maid Among Maids and Jack London’s The People of the Abyss, both early 20th century.
Even though Fanny, as far as I know, did not use a false identity when she worked at various institutions, you can really say that she has made a Wallraff. She has observed and collected information but also witnessed and participated herself.
The result is the novel Closed Institution, where we follow the main character Jonna’s path from the introduction to her new prison job to the offer of permanent employment that is not answered in the book a year later. Through Jonna’s journey during this year, we learn more about the conditions for both staff and clients at the institution against the backdrop of the massive overcrowding of the correctional system and political decisions to increase capacity.
This may not sound like an immediately fun read, but I can still highly recommend the book, which provides a very important perspective on the entire debate about crime and punishment. The fact that the author herself has worked for several years in the field described contributes greatly to the book’s indisputable weight as a debate contribution.
To sum up, I would like to say that Fanny Klang has written an extremely important report book, albeit dressed in elegant novel clothing. And I hope it is true, as Fanny said in an interview, that a fiction book about the correctional system has the potential to reach more readers than a non-fiction book on the subject would have done.
Finally, I would also like to add that it is extra fun that this book was partly written in the Leninland scholarship accommodations here in Varberg, where Fanny has had two rewarding stays. For those who are not familiar with Leninland, I can tell you that it is a kind of cultural free zone for writers with their hearts on the left side and a chance for them to work concentratedly on their projects for a few weeks.
Fanny was one of the first scholarship holders at the beginning of 2023 and this is the first time a Leninland scholarship holder has received an award here at Varberg Theatre. We think that’s fantastic fun!