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.