theguardian.com
A Friend's Memoir
Sigrid Rausing on completing her best friend's final memoir, a moving exploration of grief and friendship.
English
United Kingdom
LifestyleDeathGriefFriendshipMemoirLoss
Granta MagazineSwedish PenSwedish Nobel Committee For Literature
Sigrid RausingJohanna EkströmMaurice SendakEric AbrahamEdmund Wilson
- How did the book evolve?
- The book evolved from a writer's notebook into a profound meditation on loss, encompassing the loss of a relationship, the death of her mother, and the pandemic. Ekström's own impending illness also became a central theme.
- Did you have any reservations about agreeing to finish Ekström’s work?
- Sigrid Rausing, initially hesitant, felt bound by a vow to complete her friend's book after her passing. The promise held a powerful, almost sacred obligation.
- And the Walls… is, above all, a grief memoir. Was working on it consoling as well as painful?
- Working on the book was both consoling and painful for Rausing. While grieving, the act of engaging with her friend's voice proved therapeutic and provided solace.
- She published 13 books in different genres. Yet this is the first to be translated into English. Why do you think this was?
- Rausing believes the book's broad themes of illness and loss make it more universally accessible than Ekström's earlier, culturally specific works, explaining why it's the first to be translated into English.
- The title is a line from the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, when the little boy, Max, is confined to his room – his imagination transforms it into a jungle. Ekström, similarly, began writing during the pandemic…
- Ekström's visual metaphors, even before her diagnosis, were poignant and prophetic, reflecting her unusually sharp vision and a habit of seeing as a central metaphor. The title references the transformation of confinement into a world of imagination.