Death on the Beach: Essays from a Marginal World

"Högselius's curious and nimble mind leads readers down a captivating path." - SHELF AWARENESS, starred review

A walk with Per Högselius, skirting shipwrecks and bodies, relics of war and vanished lives, is a deep-dive into landscape and culture. It leaves us fragile and shows us wonders.

Holidaymakers go to the beach to play. The world's great writers, film makers and artists head there to tread the margins between life and death. In Death on the Beach, Per Högselius leads us in their footsteps.

What do we find? Life-busting ideas, powerful landscapes, scenes to make you shiver, and an entry-gate to some of the most exciting books and films you've never heard of.

Translated from Swedish by award-winner Agnes Broomé (The Gospel of the Eels), this gripping essay collection reveals that longing inside us that continues to draw us to the sea – even when so many have failed to return.

Per Högselius grew up in Stockholm, Sweden. As a child he dreamed about becoming an astronomer, which led him to study physics at university. In his teens he discovered palaeontology, history and literature. A hopeless romantic, he wished he had lived in the nineteenth century. He became a passionate traveller, targeting not so much the distant corners of the world but the nearby post-Cold War lands of the Baltic Sea region. His journeys there became the basis for his first non-academic book in Swedish, the historical travelogue Östersjövägar (Baltic Sea Paths, 2007). Later on, he fell in love with the North Sea and subsequently with China. Meanwhile Per has pursued an academic career in the history of science, technology and environment. A professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, he enjoys juxtaposing different genres and styles of writing in exploring human experiences with technology and nature. He writes regularly for the leading Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet

Agnes Broomé has a PhD in Translation Studies from University College London. Her translations include August Prize winners The Expedition by Bea Uusma, The Gospel of the Eels by Patrik Svensson, and Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren, and the 2022 Petrona Award winner Maria Adolfsson’s Fatal Isles. She is director of the Scandinavian Studies program at Harvard.