Maxim Grigoriev

“In this, Grigoriev’s most brilliant novel to date, unforgettable characters come to life through a stream of fragmented, broken, elevated, dissolved, rain-washed attempts at conversation.”
Expressen (SE)

“The Rain is a remarkably beautiful novel. […] Romantic, nostalgic, cinematic – Grigoriev’s prose is exceptionally beautiful in its fluctuating rain scenes.”
Aftonbladet (SE)

“Maxim Grigoriev’s The Rain is a delightfully hypnotizing novel. […] The Rain is a serious game, playing on our longing to interpret and fill in, and a pleasure to read.”
Dagens Nyheter (SE)

“[…] a novel such as The Rain, which resides in questions touching on life and how it’s supposed to be lived – but also how it’s supposed to be written – is a balm for the soul.”
Sydsvenskan (SE)

“Just like Europe, The Rain contains nuanced and fascinating descriptions and meditations of decay, ineffability, absence and incompleteness.”
Svenska Dagbladet (SE)

“Reading Grigoriev this time is like stepping straight into a whirlpool.”
Jönköpings-Posten (SE)

“It is an unusual but very successful narrative technique, that provides a distinct and continuously fascinating experience of the characters and their actions.”
BTJ (SE)

“[…] the prose in the descriptive parts, about the granite, the wind, and the rain, is devastatingly beautiful.”
Kulturnytt, Swedish Radio (SE)

“The resigned atmosphere, that Maxim Grigoriev handles so skillfully, glues together the story’s loose form. The rain – abused daily in worse books – falls more beautifully in Grigoriev’s prose than that of  any other Swedish author.”
Helagotland (SE)

“As a stylistic experiment, The Rain is groundbreaking. […] The Rain is a fun book. An intelligent book.”
KULT Magasin (SE)

“You are completely drawn into the story. […]Ultimately, The Rain is a novel that breaks free from its own boundaries and evolves into something more, something that affected me more than I was prepared for and that I will think about for a long  time to come. Maxim Grigoriev has created an unparalleled opus, and a clear example of what literature alone can accomplish.”
Lundagård (SE)

“It is elegantly executed, beautiful and ugly all at once, annoying and touching, as complex as a human being.”
Expressen (SE)

“It’s a Devil’s Bible of exile literature, and a grand novel with countless layers. […] It feels more like a brooding novel translated from one of the major European languages, than the third book from a relatively young Swedish author. I read it as a haunting novel about Europe after the rain, in the calm before the storm.”
Dagens Nyheter (SE)

“[Maxim Grigoriev] elevates both himself and the entire genre by sheer force and shows proof of a successful art of expression. […] Another central theme is the emergence of a language; the Swedish text interleaves repeatedly with expressions in French and Russian, ultimately forming a kind of polyglot choir that says the same thing in different tunes.”
Göteborgs-Posten (SE)

“[…] the most literarily exciting thing I have read from a Swedish author in years.. […] Fine-tuned, dissonant and remarkably engaging amidst all the emptiness – Europe is undoubtedly a Swedish novel of European dimensions.”
Sydsvenskan (SE)

“Out of the extraordinarily crafted text, a course of event emerges . […] Following in the tradition of Central European Prose, in the likes of Ingeborg Bachmann, Thomas Bernhard and perhaps W.G. Sebald, Maxim Grigoriev sets his sight and, with the novel Europe, demonstrates a remarkably precise aim.”
Västerbottens-Kuriren (SE)

“Grigoriev writes a hypnotic, suggestive and chiseled prose which, despite its sometimes manically detailed descriptions, always feels alive and dynamic – and is not without dark humor. I can imagine that the emigrant’s feeling of duality and disorientation might  feel just like this. The narration is slow, but never stale!”
BTJ (SE)

“[…] the one who reads to increase their sensitivity, to get close to people and contemplate what a life truly is, will want to linger in this book for a long time. […] Nikita is, in many ways, a gloomy figure, almost passive in his interactions with other people – a listener and observer, much like a reader – but with a rare stylistic ability and linguistic sensibility which turns the exile into a pleasure.”
SVT Kultur (SE)

“Through a very skillful portrayal and a sharp, analytical gaze, Maxim Grigoriev captures the often painful emotions evoked by the protagonist’s geographical and cultural rootlessness. Even if the theme of emigration -t is the most apparent in the novel, it also seeks to answer  the more universal questions about the human condition.”
Barometern (SE)

“Everything is pitch-black, often intelligent, and Grigoriev’s prose is epically powerful.”
Norrbottens-Kuriren (SE)

“Grand and pitch perfect. […] It is literature, true literature.”
Folkbladet (SE)

“An exceptionally skillfully composed novel about the terms of exile for three eccentric Russians in Paris. The author himself moves freely between European metropolises and writes in a style that can be compared to the continent’s finest.”
Västerbottens-Kuriren (SE)