Gentlemen

Barricaded into a large, gloomy flat in Stockholm, 1979, a battered and frightened young man – Klas Ostergren – writes the story of how he came to this sorry state. But is he a reliable narrator? In this expansive and exuberant novel, he tells the story of his friends (and flatmates), the two Morgan brothers – Henry, a charismatic charmer, a man who loves to play at life but is mysteriously bound to the beautiful Maud; and Leo, his younger brother – a child genius who became a revolutionary poet, drinking and smoking his way to disillusionment. But both of them have vanished, and in the course of the tale, we find out why.This is a tale in two strands: the intriguing Morgan brothers – the ‘gentlemen’, with Klas, of the title; and the underhand dealings of the State during WW2, when Sweden secretly collaborated with Nazi business interests – a story that Leo chances on, and which has sinister links with his own past, and with Henry’s. Their lives are destroyed, suddenly and completely, and Klas is viciously attacked. Terrified of the consequences, he locks the world out and writes this account – but then Maud comes knocking on the door.The next book, “Gangsters”, opens where “Gentlemen” finishes, with Klas and Maud alone in the flat.)