Stig Dagerman (1923-1954) was regarded as the most talented writer of the Swedish postwar generation. He wrote his first novel at twenty-two, and received widespread acclaim; critics compared his writing to the likes of Kafka, Faulkner and Camus. Over the course of the next five years he published prolifically, always to immense success, before suddenly falling silent. In 1954 Sweden was stunned to learn that he had taken his own life, at the age of thirty-one.