Johan Persson

It's always a bit weird rating a biography, because in a way it feels like you're rating someone's experience of life story. You can't really complain about a bad plot or something, because, you know, it really happened, so you can't exactly change too much. For the same reason it seems so weird to say that the book was very exciting and well-paced, because, again, this is someone's life experience, you can't rate that shit.

But it is all those things. And well-written, which should be obvious since it's written by two journalists, but, yeah, being a journalist hardly means you're a good writer these days. Being a writer doesn't even mean you're a good writer. My only complain is that since it's told in multiple first person POV, their two "voices" sound very much alike and at first it was hard to distinguish between them. But you got into it fast, and as they menton that Johan Persson is dyslexic I'm assuming Martin Schibbye was behind most of the writing - hence the similarity in voices.

Of course everything in it is fucked up, but they tell it in a way so that you can still sympatize with their plight and horrible conditions ... while making it fun enough so that you want to keep reading one. It helps knowing they'll be released too, of course.

But it's probably one of the best books I've read this year, and quite possibly one of the most important ones as well.… (lisätietoja)

438 Days is an open, honest and human account of two Swedish journalists who set out to investigate the involvement of a Swedish oil company in a closed region of Ethiopia, and who ended up being imprisoned as terrorists. That they maintained their sanity while a repressive regime flouted international law, abetted by the silence of UN member states, is testament to how grounded they are as people. The thing I like about this book is that it doesn't set out to shock or sensationalise, and it doesn't hide its truth in a sea of clever words or political analysis. It is a chronicle of the experience of two men and the people they encounter told in a really straightforward, accessible way. You don't have to be ultra politically motivated to read it. You just have to be interested in the world around you. There is grimness in the book, of course, but there is also humour and beauty. It is utterly gripping.… (lisätietoja)