Return to Ithaca

Eyvind Johnson · 1900–1976 · Sweden

Originally Strändernas svall (Swedish) · translated by M. A. Michael

Why it matters

Odysseus comes home not as a triumphant hero but as a reluctant, war-sick veteran who must be talked into one last slaughter. Written in the shadow of 1945, this Swedish retelling made Homer answer for every homecoming soldier of the century.

At a glance

Slow interior monologues and ironic distance, layered over an assumed familiarity with the Odyssey.