In her novel My Name Is Not Miriam, the writer takes us through the life of a Roma woman who survived the horrors of World War II. Malika was sent to Auschwitz, where she was forced to change her name to Miriam in order to survive. Even after the war, when she lived in Sweden, she continued to keep a secret about her true identity. However, her past haunts her and does not give her peace. The time has come for Miriam to reveal her secret, but how will it be accepted?
My Name Is Not Miriam is a novel about shame, guilt and fear of the untold truth, about the most shocking part of European history, about the attitude towards the Roma and about life in Sweden after the war. Reminding us of the dark and not-so-distant past, Maigul Axelson makes us think about today's still insurmountable prejudices.
This project has been funded with support from the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission.
Majgull Axelsson (born 1947 in Landskrona) is a Swedish journalist and writer. She grew up in Nässjö and had education in journalism. Her first book was non-fiction, and focused on the problems of child prostitution and street children in third world, and poverty in Sweden. April Witch is her second novel, and one that was well received in Sweden. With over 400,000 copies sold in hardcover, it landed on several bestseller lists for months and received important Swedish literature awards including the Moa Martinsson Prize and Jörgen Eriksson's Prize. It addresses themes of mother-daughter relationships, competition between women, and the failures of Sweden's postwar welfare state.
Axelsson lives with her husband on Lidingö.
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