THE REVENGE PROJECT (HÄMNDPROJEKTET)

In a moving box, Nico finds her old diary and starts flipping through it. Among more or less embarrassing notes about infatuations and drunkenness, she reads something that cuts straight to her, decades later: ‘‘Revenge sets me free!”

Although she is now an adult, a parent, a trained psychologist — in other words, someone who absolutely should not be indulging in revenge fantasies of any kind — she notices that her desire for revenge is not extinguished. It’s just buried under a thin layer of rushed-over civility.

For then something terrible happens. Something that makes her rage flare up like a gunshot in the brain, her obsession rage like a wildfire in her chest, and rekindles her thirst for revenge.
The Revenge Project delves deep into our contemporary view of retribution. Is it possible to rationalize revenge? Is there a right and a wrong way to react to trauma? And how do you actually regain control when someone has done you real harm?

Rights

Sweden: Norstedts

REVIEWS

“The book has a strong page-turning quality […] It’s painful, and Jägerfeld makes Nico’s trauma and anxiety become the reader’s own. The man’s psychopathic traits are rendered with such subtle brushstrokes. Simple everyday events, long after, send Nico back to the time she was under his control, and the desire, the need to get back, grows larger than anything else. Rape and revenge, the novel fits perfectly within this classic genre. […] The Revenge Project is not only a page-turner, but also aims to educate about the prolonged reactions of those subjected to sexually tinged violence, and the consequences it brings.”
Sydsvenskan / SWE

“The result is a spirited essay on BDSM sex and the desire for revenge. Or a candid depiction of depression, illness, and post-traumatic stress. […] The strength of the book lies in its essayistic style. In its fluidity, its ability to reconsider its positions, to start from the subjective, to teach both itself and its reader something. About violence and fear, victims and perpetrators. How they often intersect.”
Aftonbladet / SWE

“When Nico finally gets her revenge, it’s not in the way one might expect, which elevates the entire book. So if you read The Revenge Project, read it all the way to the end when the revenge arrives, because it’s sweet!”
Fempers / SWE