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A hilarious, darkly comic graphic retelling of Shakespeare's
Hamlet in radically condensed prose by legendary Swedish children's author Lindgren and illustrator Hsglund. Bold and brilliant, irreverent and humane, this is the perfect irreverent gift for Shakespeare readers of all ages.ages.
About the author
Barbro Lindgren, born in 1937, is a Swedish author of innovative and multifaceted works for children of all ages. The winner of the world’s largest children’s literature prize, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), her body of work includes picture books, poetry, plays, and books for young adults. Since her debut as an author in 1965, she has published over a hundred titles, and her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.
Starting out as a poor painter, artist Anna Höglund believed making picture books would put more solid food on the table for her family. It didn’t really. But she discovered the possibilities of the medium, which today she still considers the ultimate: the crossbreeding of text and picture suits her perfectly. She has been doing this since 1982, when she was twenty-four.
Rachel Willson-Broyles is a freelance translator based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She received her BA from Gustavus Adolphus College and her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her other translations include Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s novels Montecore and Everything I Don’t Remember and plays INVASION! and I Call My Brothers, Malin Persson Giolito’s novel Quicksand, and Jonas Jonasson’s novels The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden and The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old-Man.
Summary
Hamlet is radically condensed in this darkly comic picture book, taking 'brevity is the soul of wit' to the extreme.
Additional text
“[A] wonderfully funny retelling of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet… Lindgren somehow manages to capture all of the high points of Shakespeare’s tale, from the adulterous marriage of his mother and his murderous stepfather to the appearance of his father’s ghost to the bitter scene of mass murder at the end of the play, with a minimum of dialogue. Illustrator Anna Höglund gives us an anthropomorphic rendition of the players which seems to make them even more human than any version I have ever seen on stage. Hamlet, as a deeply depressed rabbit, tugs at the heartstrings more than Gielgud ever could and Claudius as a wicked rat seems vastly appropriate casting.... I cannot wait to read it to my students next semester when we are studying Hamlet. I am sure after making them sit through the breathtaking four-hour Branagh version, this will be a very welcome break. This would make a wonderful gift for any Shakespeare fan in your life.”
—Tamara Benson, Tulsa Book Review
