Embla in the Middle of Cosmos

Majken Pollack & Sara Lundberg

The mom reads another book, but Embla still can’t sleep. The body just totally refuses to. Embla tries to express how it felt on the bus, when it was like no one noticed her. And in the park when nobody saw her. As if Embla was just a little spot in the Cosmos. As if she was all alone.

But the mom wants Embla to sleep. “You’re not listening!” Embla shouts. “I don’t want to be alone!” And then the mom finally listens. “Do you know,” she says. “That when you were born, you could say we both became alone. But not only alone, but we also belong together.”

In her text about Embla, Majken Pollack creates a story where the everyday lives side by side with the bog questions in life – that we are all alone in a way, while also belonging together. That we can choose by ourselves. And that it is possible to find comfort when we really see each other.

Sara Lundberg’s magical and beautiful illustrations are reminiscent of artist like Gustaf Klimt, Sigrid Hjertén and Nils Dardel. There is a play between light and dark, warm and cold colours, and monotone fields and patterned fields that allows us to follow Embla on her road from loneliness to belonging and from despair to hope.

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