About Magnus Linton

Magnus Linton is a Swedish writer and reporter who currently covers Latin America for the Swedish press from Bogotá, Colombia. His new book Cocaína - a book on those who make it was launched in Sweden in september and is 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. 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. Lintons new book Cocaína is, as one reviewer puts it, "a magnificent story with new dimensions" on drug production, drug corruption, drug related misery as well as the failed war on drugs and the future of drug use

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 Cocaína:

"I don't know of any other Swedish journalist that with the same ease as Magnus Linton can move between the reporter's presence, summaries of the fruits of academic labour and global political analysis: like a skilled driver, he manages to keep the style regardless of road conditions. There is something cinematic about his art of reporting: violent Spanish slang exploding the narrative, contrasted with nature poetry. It is a story about catastrophy, yet without phony advices or solutions."
Björn af Kleen in Sydsvenskan

"Cocaina describes a reality in a constant state of change and in his stories from different corners of Colombia, Linton manages to weave in complicated historical perspectives in such a matter of factly way that you don't even notice. He even manages to here and there illuminate the ‘other' Colombia - the incredible country beyond drugs and violence that Linton himself would prefer to tell us about. It is in many way a brilliant book, based on stories that were not only difficult to write but also dangerous."
Lars Palmgren in Swedish Radio's P1:s Kulturnytt

"The thing with Cocaina is that it is damn good without the author himself being too visible. Linton does not write himself into the story, he does not position himself on the issue of legalization, except in a sweeping formulation in the preface about how he ‘neither wants cocain in the grocery store nor to live in a drug-free society'. And this is certainly not a pamphlet about a drug, rather it is an exposé on Colombia: a well researched and loving portrait of a nation with an unusually violent contemporary history."
Philip Teir in Dagens Nyheter

"I notice while reading that I forget that there are actually people who use cocaine, all the users and abusers are abstracted by the concept of 'demand'. This approach is admirable in all its stubborn consistency: we see the politics of cocaine much more clearly when we don't mix in the reasons why people take drugs, the misery and the moralizing. Some might argue this makes half the picture. Linton seems to suggest that the picture this way gets so much clearer, and I agree."
Ulrika Stahre in Aftonbladet

"Among all the exciting different strands in Magnus Linton's story the most fascinating one is about how the USA's war on drugs in Colombia is no longer concerned with exterminating cocaine, but rather about using the drug as an excuse to maintain geopolitical power in the region. This dimension makes it all the much harder to propose a simple solution to the humanitarian catastrophy that is the global war on drugs. Magnus Linton is wise enough to not shrink his magnificently complex story to a package of simple solutions."
Johannes Forsberg in Expressen

"Linton skillfully switches between macro and micro perspectives. From portraits of partying backpackers and poor peasants growing coca, to the political game and its history and present. It is difficult to nail down power structures in both small and large contexts without becoming overexplicit, but Linton succeeds. A condition for this is the liberating lack of sentimentality that characterizes the book. Informed and straightforwardly, Linton tells us about the course of events and their history, without ever glorifying or victimizing anyone. At the same time the book is imbued with a strong pathos. The drug trade is an ever-present backdrop for a larger story on power, state and poverty."
Elin Grelsson in Göteborgs-Posten