New Book: An Honest Life

Joakim Zander, author of the international bestseller The Swimmer, returns with a new literary suspense novel: An Honest Life. The novel is set to be published in Sweden by Wahlström & Widstrand on April 5th.

A young man enrolls in law school with the dream of forging a new future, free from the shackles of the small-town mediocrity and the lower middle-class identity that defined his youth. But when he finds that the strictures of class and economics are impossible to escape even within the confines of an elite education, he grows increasingly disillusioned: the playing field will never be level. He gets sucked into the world of a self-proclaimed gang of bandits, whose decadent lifestyle is fueled by their willingness to act outside the law. After passing the initiation rite, he partakes in elaborate heists justified by a system of morals outside conventional society. But what begins as a young man’s dream of finding community quickly spirals into involvement in serious crime where he is more pawn than player. Soon he ends up at a point of no return: is he willing to sacrifice everything to be one of the bandits?

An Honest Life is an exhilarating novel that combines a poignant coming of age story with the electric dramaturgy of a heist thriller. Whip-smart, daring, and deeply relatable, the novel entertains while also challenging the reader to ask ourselves in what way we too are complicit in a society defined by inequality. And, what does it really mean to live an honest life?