When Moeyaert was awarded the prize in April 2019, only two of his books had been translated into Swedish: Afrika bakom staketet (Afrika achter het hek) in 1995 and Kärleken vi inte förstår (Het is de liefde die we niet begrijpen) in 2001. However, since his debut in 1983, Bart Moeyaert has been translated into various languages such as English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Danish, Russian, Polish: 21 different languages in total. As a result, his authorship is well-represented globally and especially in the German language area with some 20 titles translated into German. By contrast, Moeyaert’s work was not that known in Sweden when he received the ALMA. Not only had the last translation into Swedish been published 18 years ago, in addition, the two titles, that were translated into Swedish, by then unfortunately were out of print.

The Swedish publisher Lilla Piratförlaget gained the translation rights of Moeyaert’s books in 2019 and decided to publish a second edition of Kärleken vi inte förstår (Het is de liefde die we niet begrijpen) since it was already translated and the translation rights of Moeyaert’s former Swedish publisher, Rabén & Sjögren, had expired. With the approval of the translator, the reprint was issued right in time for the prize ceremony in May 2019. Furthermore, it was decided that Alla är ledsna nuförtiden (Tegenwoordig heet iedereen Sorry) would be published in September of the same year and Bröder (Broere) in September of 2020. Interestingly, another Swedish publishing house, Rámus, decided to publish the Swedish translation of Moeyaert’s book Graz in 2020, a book targeting adult readers. Subsequently, the authorship of Bart Moeyaert was reintroduced to the Swedish readers.

Upon the reintroduction of Moeyaert in Sweden, critics and readers naturally voiced their opinion and impression of his work. Moeyaert received favourable reviews in the daily national newspapers: Expressen, Dagens Nyheter, Göteborgs-Posten. Furthermore, in a number of Swedish readers’s blogs, Moeyaert’s books were discussed. The role of bloggers nowadays unsurprisingly is also important to the publishers because they too bring an authorship to the readers. The website of Lilla Piratförlaget boasts several excerpts of positive reviews from both national newspapers and book blogs. In fact, the number of excerpts from national newspapers equals that of the blog posts showing the importance of the bloggers’ reviews. From a book blog, Jennies boklista, the following quote was taken: ‘Fantastic, moving & skilfully written!’ (my translation into English) about Kärleken vi inte förstår (https://lillapiratforlaget.se/bocker/karleken-vi-inte-forstar/). Another blogger, Boktokig, has been quoted on Alla är ledsna nuförtiden: ’What fascinates me about this powerful story is that it’s about being seen and to break free without embellishing it.’ (my translation into English) (https://lillapiratforlaget.se/bocker/alla-ar-ledsna-nufortiden/).

According to researcher Vanessa Joosen (2020), the ALMA jury favours authors using narrative silence especially when juxtaposed with a narrative of claiming one’s voice which more or less echoes the motivation of the jury when Moeyaert was awarded the prize: ‘Bart Moeyaert’s condensed and musical language vibrates with suppressed emotions and unspoken desires. He portrays relationships at crisis point with a cinematic immediacy, even as his complex narratives suggest new ways forward.’ (https://alma.se/en/laureates/bart-moeyaert/). The word unspoken is key here and relates to the narrative silence mentioned by Joosen. In Moeyaert’s books the narrative silence is conveyed in the in-depth description of the gestures and glances of the characters instead of letting the characters express their emotions and thoughts in words. In Brothers (Broere) the narrator is the youngest of seven brothers and he is in part also an observer of what is going on in the world of his brothers. He observes their glances and inaudible voices to be able to understand the situation and their frame of mind as this excerpt illustrates: ‘My brothers exchanged glances, thought long and hard, and now and then whispered a word I didn’t understand to see if they were all thinking the same thing.’ (p. 86). Clearly, the narrator is not always included in his brothers’ pursuits and he becomes the outsider. However, in some situations the seven brothers are all together, joined in silent togetherness, ‘like one brother with fourteen arms and legs’ (p. 139): ‘My brothers and I thought the same thing at the same time. As if we had arranged it, we looked up at the same instant.’ (p. 98). Hence, it is through the voice of the youngest brother that we follow the adventures of the seven brothers.