In November 2017, a piece in Sweden’s most influential daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter hit the cultural sphere like a bomb. Eighteen women came forward with accusations of sexual harassment and abuse against a man known as JC, the "Cultural Profile" who had close ties to the Swedish Academy – the prestigious institution responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature. These accusations, emerging during the global #MeToo movement, revealed years of alleged misconduct and sparked a monumental public outcry, bringing to light the deep-seated issues within the cultural establishment. The novel depicts a time when “witch trials”, conspiracy theories and myths became part of reality.
The Outside Class intertwines a personal history with the societal upheavals of 1980s and 1990s Sweden. The siblings A-K and Lars are raised in a sprawling house converted into a hostel by their parents. Their mother, a lawyer who defies her father's violent expectations by rejecting the Bar Association, is a multifaceted figure whose ambitions both hold the family together and create fractures, leaving the children to navigate a turbulent, unsupervised childhood.
Now a mother herself, A-K is forced to confront the lingering trauma of her past by reporting being raped by JC years earlier – an act that not only reopens old wounds but also resurrects memories of her long-deceased mother. In this way, the novel also delves into the repercussions of the #MeToo movement in Sweden, culminating in the scandal surrounding the Swedish Academy and the eventual cancellation of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature.
