Kevin Frato

King of the Cannibals

(Numera negerkung)

Harley, a 17-year-old boy with a wild imagination, leaves USA for Sweden to avoid being drafted into the war in Iraq. He ends up in Jordbro, a suburb of Stockholm, where he studies Swedish for immigrants and waits for his residence permit.

In his school essays – written in broken Swedish, with strange translations and english word order – we meet Harley's outrageous alter ego Lay-Z, the worlds laziest hip-hopper, an immensely popular, cool, and successful person. In Harley’s english letters to his family we meet someone entirely different – a sad and confused boy who is trying to make sense of this world and his place in it.

King of the Cannibals is an exceptional first novel that touches on such disparate subjects as USA’s domestic and foreign policies, war, how language affects our identity, art and love. It is an intelligent, funny and sad story with a political and linguistic edge.

Published by Kabusa Böcker 2009.