Wanda Bendjelloul, a journalist, film critic, and author, has long been a prominent voice in Swedish media. She works as a critic for Dagens Nyheter, appears regularly on TV4’s Nyhetsmorgon, and contributes to P1 Kultur and cultural publications. Her experience spans film production, public lectures, and numerous cultural panels and festivals. This diverse background gives her fiction a documentary quality — grounded, observant, and socially engaged.

In her debut novel Dalenglitter (2020), Bendjelloul tells the story of a young woman growing up in Enskededalen, a working-class suburb in southern Stockholm. With sharp insight and vivid storytelling, Bendjelloul explores the effects of class, heritage, and social mobility on identity and belonging. The novel is a striking and emotionally resonant portrayal of perseverance.

In 2024, Bendjelloul published Minnets labyrint (The Labyrinth of Memory), a documentary novel that delves into the fragility of memory and the complexities of personal and political identity. The book begins with a deeply personal event — a reunion with her mother after fifteen years of silence, only to find her suffering from dementia. As her mother’s memories begin to fade, Bendjelloul is compelled to retrace her own past.

Blending personal narrative with historical investigation, Minnets labyrint examines the reliability of memory and the ways in which our stories — both private and collective — are shaped, distorted, or erased.

She is currently working on her next novel.

Agent: Erik Larsson

Published Weyler, 2024
Genre Documentary novel
Pages 297

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Throughout the 1980s and 90s, the Swedish-Libyan Friendship Association organized numerous trips to Libya where participants were immersed in Gaddafi's ideology. In Tripoli, young people from around the world gathered for the dictator's annual indoctrination camps. Among these visitors was Wanda Bendjelloul.

After fifteen years apart from her mother, the author discovers their shared history is fading away. As she begins to reconstruct her past, memories resurface — particularly of her journey to Libya. What circumstances led her there in the first place?

The Labyrinth of Memory is a documentary novel that uncovers a largely forgotten phenomenon. Drawing from personal and collective memories, films, and literature, Wanda Bendjelloul crafts a narrative exploring the intersection of global politics and the reliability of memory.

Published Weyler, 2020
Genre Contemporary fiction
Pages 314

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She bears burn marks on her wrists from her days working the deep fryer. But now, promoted to the cash register, life has become somewhat easier. She can slip the occasional bill into her pocket and save up for a driver's license. Perhaps there's an escape route from the world of hamburgers after all. When a young Polish relative suddenly dies, she must travel to attend his funeral. In Poland, she encounters a suburb vastly different from her own, and her life takes an unexpected turn.

In Dalenglitter Wanda Bendjelloul portrays a young woman's coming-of-age in Enskededalen, southern Stockholm. This sharp and compelling debut novel explores the impact of hard work, social class, and origins in shaping identity and destiny.