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The Fly Trap
The Fly Trap
Jan 10, 2026 3:08 PM

Author:Fredrik Sjöberg,Thomas Teal

The Fly Trap

Fredrik Sjöberg's Swedish bestseller about summer, islands, freedom and boundaries.

'The light, the warmth, the smells, the mist, the birdsong - the moths. Who can sleep? Who wants to?'

Fredrik Sjöberg finds happiness in the little things. Millions of them, in fact. This beguiling bestseller is his unique meditation on collecting hoverflies. It is also about living on a remote Swedish island, blissful long summer nights, lost loves, unexpected treasures, art, nature, slowness, and how freedom can come from the things we least expect.

'Full of charm, a book about how to find meaning in life' Melissa Harrison, The Times, Books of the Year

'I often return to The Fly Trap, it remains close to my heart. The minute observations from nature that reveal sudden insights into one's life. Sometimes I almost think that he wrote it for me' Tomas Tranströmer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

'Charming, witty and original' Patrick Barkham, Guardian

'Nature writing that can laugh at itself, a real tonic' Gregory Day, Sydney Morning Herald

'Delightful, at once informative and often humorously digressive . . . a humane man of wide-ranging curiosity, Sjöberg writes with infectious passion' Paul Binding Independent

Fredrik Sjöberg collects hoverflies on the island Runmarö, in the archipelago east of Stockholm. He is also a literary critic, translator, cultural columnist and the author of several books including The Art of Flight and The Raisin King, which form a trilogy with The Fly Trap.

Reviews

Charming, witty and original . . . a sly challenge to virtually every contemporary orthodoxy

—— Patrick Barkham , Guardian

Its joy lies in Sjöberg's loose-limbed prose . . . at once whimsical and yet laden with erudition and a deep feeling for the natural world and our place in it

—— Financial Times

Delightful, at once informative and often humorously digressive . . . a humane man of wide-ranging curiosity, Sjöberg writes with infectious passion

—— Independent

Subtle, convincing . . . Sjöberg thrives in the indistinct boundary between science and literature

—— New Scientist

A quirky tapestry . . . an enjoyable if wayward tale

—— Ecologist

Entertaining . . .iconoclastic . . . the writing is whimsical, digressive and pleasingly devoid of anything too weighty or purposeful

—— Richard Coniff , Wall Street Journal

Hilton (1900-1954) is part of the vast company of largely forgotten good authors... He produced a small handful of excellent popular novels - Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Random Harvest - but nothing more enduring than the one that gave us Shangri-La: Lost Horizon

—— Denver Post

The word [Shangri-La] has become part of the English language, the name of retirement bungalows from Devon to Durban; of hotels and boarding houses promising rest and seclusion in every continent

—— Guardian

Do not miss this book

—— Sunday Times

This is a novel for our times, in content

—— Irish Times

An international bestseller, this quirky, offbeat novel about books, with its wry humour and wonderful characters, is a delicious read

—— Choice Magazine

Charmingly original....sweet, quirky

—— Washington Post

This is a charming novel for book lovers from all walks of life… As you journey through the pages, weaving Little Women, Harry Potter, Jodi Picoult, Jane Austen, Steig Larsson and Proust around the storyline, you’ll find yourself rooting for the beautifully drawn characters, smiling at the wry humour and applauding the ending

—— Candis Magazine

Charming and relatable

—— Mel Mitchell , Nudge

You’ll love it

—— Catherine Small , Irish News

A wonderful tale.

—— Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan , Daily Express

Funny, fashionable, fabulous - my beach read pick for the summer!

—— Jane Green

This Years The Devil Wears Prada

—— Vanity Fair

Lethally funny with sass to spare

—— Daily Mail

[a] brilliant and claustrophobic novel

—— VICE

one to watch out for

—— The Independent

A very impressive, must read for fans of STATION ELEVEN, so unsettling but subtle too. I loved FIND ME…

—— Eva Dolan

a moving, and frequently funny, exploration of character and of trauma

—— Independent

so compelling ... an unforgettable debut

—— Irish Independent

a wonderful read

—— Nina Allan , Interzone

Like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale or Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, van den Berg’s debut novel presents a frighteningly plausible near-future dystopia grounded in human elements… heartbreakingly real and compellingly wrought

—— Library Journal

Find Me, her transfixing first novel, is in keeping with her short stories thematically, and yet, in its deep soundings, it’s a commanding departure. . . Van den Berg’s enveloping novel of a plague and a seeker in an endangered world reveals what it feels like to grow up unwanted and unknown in a civilization hell-bent on self-destruction. It is also a beautifully strange, sad, and provocative inquiry into our failure to love, cherish, and protect. But ultimately, Find Me is a delving story of courage, persistence, and hope

—— Booklist

In Find Me, van den Berg depicts a life slowly coming into focus—it’s blurry and impressionistic at times, sometimes deliriously scattered. But out of the fog of memory and the haze of drugs emerges a sense of clarity that’s deep and moving and real

—— The Boston Globe

From this memorable novel's eerie first paragraph to its enigmatic ending, Laura van den Berg has invented something beautiful indeed

—— LA Times

This is one of my favorite novels of 2015, and we’re not even IN 2015 yet . . .The language is beautiful, spare, and carefully crafted, and the characters are fully realized and unforgettable. There is tension and redemption and insight and even humor in these pages, and they make for a really incredible read

—— Bookriot

Surreal adventures blend with a reflective and sad sensibility in van den Berg’s lyrical debut novel

—— Library Journal

Both novels offer precision of language and metaphor and scene even as what is being constructed feels messy, chaotic, sad, hopeless... Both orphaned and alone in the world, both so completely real, both telling a story that feels important and exciting to read. I feel lucky to have stumbled upon these books this year, and challenged by them to be better

—— The Millions

This debut novel by acclaimed short story writer van den Berg tends to lean much closer to the realms of literary fiction with its complex psychology. . . Van den Berg's writing is curiously beautiful

—— Kirkus

a strange beauty in this apocalyptic tale

—— Psychologies
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