Elin Persson made her debut with the young adult novel The Afghan Sons (2020), for which she won the 2021 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize. Something Is Pulling at Me was published in 2021, followed by Summer in 2023. 

Elin is currently working as editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine Provins.

Her latest novel Pizzeria Roma was published in March 2025 by Wahlström & Widstrand. 

Agent: Erik Larsson

PUBLISHED Wahlström & widstrand, MARCH 2025
genre fiction
PAGES 180

ALL RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Pizzeria Roma is a tribute to a village and its inhabitants – a novel about friendship and community, about small-town life and work at a workshop, about the love that has come and gone and the one that endures. 

Through the years, they’ve fallen away, the men at the workshop. One by one, they end up in the hospital, for their lungs, backs, or knees. Even those who were strong as oxen, the ones who taught Magnus to weld. Now Magnus is on sick leave; the old guys say that routines are important, like meeting at Roma, grabbing a coffee or a pizza, chatting a bit.

When pain shoots through his body, the social insurance office gives him trouble, and the waiting time for surgery on his worn-down vertebrae feels as endless as the rushing stream outside his house. He’s lucky Kenneth is there. Kenneth – who holds Magnus up when it feels like he’s falling.

REVIEWS

"The friendship between Magnus and Kenneth is brilliantly portrayed. [...] Pizzeria Roma is a story about workers in the countryside, about male friendship, about small towns. Magnus is a character rarely portrayed in literature. Persson's quietness shines through at times."
- Gefle Dagblad

"Stepping into Elin Persson's new novel Pizzeria Roma is a bit like entering a forest. Everything falls silent. This book is a peaceful place where things are allowed to take their time. It begins in the kitchen, with everyday chores, the dish sponge, the scratched kitchen table, the wood that needs to be fetched. [...] Elin Persson has created a soft, word-rich world where I would love to be."
- SR, Swedish national radio

"[...] a powerful story about manual labour and professional pride."
- Arbetarbladet

"[...] so wonderful. [...] Persson lets Magnus' inner voice speak, and I find myself becoming deeply fond of him."
- BTJ 

"Heartfelt, melancholic and respectful. About loneliness, pain and quiet friendship. But also about welfare shortcomings and those who remain when others leave."
- Dagens Nyheter, Lilian Sjölund

"Elin Persson handles many of the other expected rural elements with bravura. The dialect is spot on, as is the nostalgia, the bloody Stockholmers with their summer houses, the DIY spirit, the fishing and the booze. There is an exquisite balance here between the respectful dives into Magnus' psyche and the small observations from everyday life and proletarian working life. […] It is about pain, but also very much about male friendship when it is as shy as a wolf. The relationship between Magnus and Kenneth is taciturn, and the distance between them is maintained even when they venture out to an island in a forest lake and sleep in hammocks overnight. It is as painful as it is atmospheric."
- Jonas Thente, Dagens Nyheter