About Magnus Linton

Magnus Linton is a Swedish writer and reporter who currently covers Latin America for the Swedish press from Bogotá, Colombia. His next book Cocaina - stories from the workplace will be launched in Sweden in April as a project he has been working on since 1989 when he first set foot in Colombia and had a ringside seat at Pablo Escobar's all-out assault on the state. His first book, The Vegans, was published in 2000 to wide acclaim, and he has since published Americanos (2005) and a "best of"-collection called Kött på flykt (2007), including controversial essays on urbanism, hedonism, drugs, masculinity and queer activism. Recently nominated to Sweden's most prestigious literary prize, "The August [Strindberg] Award", Americanos describes the emerging social movements and political conflicts popularly known as the new Latin American wave of leftism. Blazing the trail for Swedish press, Sweden’s largest paper, Aftonbladet, called Americanos “a pioneering master piece” and the best Swedish work in the genre since the 1960s. Americanos is a unique piece of documentary journalism, invaluable to anyone trying to understand the Latin America rising from the ashes of the era of failed market liberalism.

Atlas, Linton's publishing house, is a recognized publisher of quality fiction and non-fiction, including translations of works by Joan Didion, Philip Gourevitch, Saskia Sassen, Iris Marion Young, Anthony Giddens, Amira Hass, Gilles Kepel and Richard Sennett. Between 2000 and 2007, Linton was Editor in Chief of the current affairs magazine Arena. Today, apart from covering Latin America, he writes  on a wide range of political issues for the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter and the magazines Arena, Ordfront, Vi and Res. He is also a regular contributor to  Swedish Radio.

Extract from Swedish press, Reviews of Americanos:

“Masterly written reports, well researched and with a tangible physical presence. Linton’s book is the best in the genre since the Third World was “discovered” by Swedish writers in the 1960s … He handles the difficulties in these gigantic transitional processes, including the centralist system in Venezuela, by analytical reasoning without falling into the pessimist trap. An observer with an agile intellect. As a political documentary, this book is a pioneering work.”
Aftonbladet

“Neo-liberalism has both conquered and lost during the years between Sven Lindqvist [1960s] and Magnus Linton. The IMF:s structural reforms have failed, the old cold war has ended, and the recent war against drugs has been lost. The results are new movements in the crust of the earth, barely discernible motions. But Linton uses his sixth seismic sense to help us imagine some of the new terrain inside this social volcano and we get to accompany him on a breathtaking journey from Argentina all the way to California, the northernmost foothold of Latin America … A magnificent account of a journey, where close-ups and analysis are seamlessly placed on a leveled plain.”
Expressen

“Magnus Linton has written an important, deeply committed and intellectually honest book without blinders or fix ideas, opening up for renewed knowledge about Latin America, beyond salvation theories. I hope this book will contribute to a rekindling of the interest in Latin America and to a continued discussion which may deepen our understanding and expand the cultural and economic exchange. This is a continent which today is also situated in Europe – just outside Stockholm!”
Dagens Nyheter

“The book is as much an ideological as a geographic road trip… Its strength is Linton’s way of placing his concrete encounters in an abstract context – actually succeeding in creating some kind of order in this abundance of ideologies. It is a breathtakingly dramatic process which Magnus Linton, precisely due to his sober approach, manages to explain in such an impressive way.”
Sydsvenskan

“Linton layers big and small; sailing like a condor, overlooking politics, history and globalization. Then diving down, striking his talons into gripping reality; with his sharp eye describing the struggle for survival and for a decent life – in the factory, in the shanty-towns and in the abortion clinics. He has ploughed through stacks of books and interviewed more than a hundred people. Americanos is a well written and very readable book, providing a balanced and updated view of the situation, right now, in Las Americas.”
Svenska Dagbladet