Wreckage Shore

Elin Bengtsson

Sam lives in the small coastal community of Marösund with her grandmother and grandfather, along with a cat that can swim across the sea that separates the living from the dead. In the house, there is also Lina’s old teenage room that none of them enter. When Lau, a year older than Sam, comes to Marösund for a summer job and moves into the closed room, family secrets are brought to light, and the two youths begin to unravel the silence surrounding Sam’s background. Their search takes them to Barcelona in pursuit of the Catalan boy – he who was driving the moped that crashed that summer evening sixteen years ago.

Wreckage Shore is a novel about inheritance and place, about trying to fill in the blanks of one’s story, about the wreckage shores of the dead, and those within us who are alive.

Elin Bengtsson is an author and researcher in gender studies. At Natur & Kultur, she has previously published Between Winter and Heaven (2013) and Land of the Ferns (2016), which was nominated for both the August Prize and the Nordic Council Literature Prize.

Press voices

“Elin Bengtsson’s fourth novel Vrakstrand is written in the same upbeat prose as the three previous works she has been praised for. Her imagery surprises and is completely lacking in tiresome clichés /…/ With a distinct sense for teenagers’ experiences, Bengtsson tells the story of the painful time in which adult role models fall from their pedestals and become normal people with flaws and fears. From this point of view, Vrakstrand picks up a question that touches everyone. Even without Sam’s more extreme experiences, it hurts when buds are breaking /…/ Particularly interesting are Sam’s thoughts about girliness as a wild power that can break free within oneself and may just happen to destroy everything /…/ Bengtsson has a phenomenal ability to create all rounded character. Her characters live, smell and feel more than any other characters in literature.” – Dagens Nyheter

“Vrakstrand is a masterfully built narrative, as well as beautiful in its simple language. The text engages the reader thanks to the author’s ability to convey insights about complex psychological realities, which happen in a free and easy manner.” – Blekinge Läns Tidning

Awards

Nominated for the Nils Holgersson Plaque 2025

Books by Elin Bengtsson