Marit Kapla (b. 1970) is an author and journalist from the small village of Osebol in the west-central part of Sweden, currently living in Gothenburg. In 2019, she debuted with the book Osebol, in which she interviewed all the forty or so residents of her hometown. This work would grant her the 2019 August Prize for Best Fictional Book, the 2020 Borås Tidning Debutant Prize, as well as a shortlist placement for the 2022 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding.

Her non-fiction work Love in Swedish was published in autumn 2022 and was made into a feature-length documentary of the same name by filmmaker Staffan Julén. The book was nominated for the EU Prize for Literature 2023.

In autumn 2026, she returns with her latest book Barnsäng (A Room in Time).

Agent: Erik Larsson

Published Norstedts, September 2026
Genre Health narrative
Pages 300

Rights sold
Swedish: Norstedts

Babies are born every day. Most of the time, everything goes well. But sometimes it doesn’t.

A Room in Time takes its starting point from a birth that took place 24 years ago. Marit Kapla tracks down the witnesses: the people who were in the delivery room and those she met at the maternity clinic. They talk to her about what happened back then, about their work, about the politics and research surrounding childbirth, and about what it means to encounter people in a situation that encompasses vulnerability, pain, overwhelming joy and, at times, the deepest sorrow.

Together, they form a kind of chorus of voices, whose knowledge and emotions touch something both very ordinary and infinitely vast.

A Room in Time is about the maternity ward as a workplace and about childbirth as an experience that never fades. Marit Kapla’s unique way of listening to people’s voices, to the poetry in everyday language, makes this a book unlike any other account of childbirth.

Reviews

“It is a slow, beautiful and moving, yet at the same time relentless, story that stirs both thought and emotion. An account of childbirth unlike any other.”
BTJ

“It takes a while to recover from this book. Every now and then, as I read, I have to stop and remind myself to breathe. Who would have thought that medical records could be so harrowing?”
Expressen

“A lyrically arranged yet highly documentary reckoning with maternity care, and, to some extent, with life itself.”
Göteborgs-Posten

“I react physically to the chapter about the birth itself: I feel nauseous, my heart rate rises. And yet it is impossible to put the book down. The feeling is that this has to be seen through to the end, whatever the cost.”
ETC

“Marit Kapla has an unusual ability to balance deeply subjective experiences with objectivity and transparency. Despite its autobiographical premise, the book also has a strongly documentary quality. Linguistically, it ventures down paths that are rarely explored.”
Borås Tidning

“This absolutely deserves to be read. Not least by every politician who needs to understand that maternity services cannot be placed under any greater strain.”
Sveriges Radio

Published Teg Publishing, 2022
Genre Non fiction
Pages 592

Renowned Swedish author Marit Kapla returns with a new title in the same form as her August Prize-winning book Osebol. This time she leaves village life for a greater subject – perhaps the greatest of all – namely, love. In Love in Swedish, Kapla interviews a range of people of different ages, genders and backgrounds on the subject of love and what it means to them.

In her signature style, Kapla marries prose poetry with investigative journalism. Kapla speaks to people from all over Sweden, from the southernmost point to the icy north – proving that even Swedes, known to the world as private and bleak, can open their hearts to the complexities and cyclonic feelings of love. The unique experiences and formulations of the people interviewed become the poignant portrayal of the conditions of love in our time.

Published Teg Publishing, 2019
Genre Non fiction
Pages 811

Rights sold
Italian – Garzanti
The Netherlands - Atlas Contact
Norway - Aschehoug
Spanish – Capitan Swing Libros
Polish – Wydawnictwo Ossolineum
World English - Penguin Press

Osebol is a village near the river Klarälven in northern Värmland, a forest dense landscape known for its astonishing nature. Since the middle of the last century, many have left as the lumber industry has become automated and an increasing number of people have moved to the cities.

The shops have closed, the ski slope has grown thick with weeds, and the bridge across the river is closed to traffic. But still, life occurs. Both those who have inherited their farms for generations, as well as those who have come from near and far, live here. People age and children grow up.

Osebol is an interview book by the journalist Marit Kapla, who grew up in Osebol. She has interviewed close to all of the approximately forty inhabitants between the ages of 18 and 92 who live in the village today. Their life stories convey a multi-faceted account of the everyday life in a small village, both from the past, the present, and with thoughts of the future. People’s grief, joy and humour paint a detailed, personal and living depiction of Swedish and global contemporary history.

Reviews

“What makes this book so captivating and so strangely engaging? It's probably just that OSEBOL bears witness to destinies of completely ordinary lives.”
- The Observer

“A grand and deeply moving elegy.”
- Dagens Nyheter

“An amazing and lyrical book full of life!”
- Aftonbladet