Sundays of the American Girl

Lars Gustafsson

When Lars Gustafsson lived in Texas, he read in the newspaper of a library assistant who had been kidnapped while washing her car on a Sunday, then raped and killed. He felt the urge to give this woman a voice, not by writing a thriller but by composing a series of poems in which the American girl speaks of her life, one Sunday at a time, while Gustafsson lends her his thoughts – prosaic and philosophical, poetic and critical. "These poems reveal a sensitivity that transcends the individual case. The "American Girl" could be everyone – including Lars Gustafsson, you or me", wrote the Swedish press.