The Polyglot Lovers

Written by Lina Wolff

Narrated by Sofia Engstrand

'A singular novel, sometimes brutal, certainly merciless.' - Le Figaro (France)

Ferocious and irreverent, this multiple prize-winning novel burns down the pretensions of a pompous literary establishment and takes no prisoners.

Ellinor is thirty-six. She wears soft black sweatpants and a Michelin Man jacket. She fights. Smart and unsentimental, she tries her hand at online dating, only to be stranded in a snowstorm with a literary critic.

Cut to Max Lamas, an author who dreams of a polyglot lover, a woman who will understand him in every tongue. His search takes him to Italy, where he befriends a Marchesa whose old Roman family is on the brink of ruin. At the heart of this literary intrigue is a handwritten manuscript that leaves no one unaffected.

The Polyglot Lovers is a fiercely witty and nuanced contribution to feminism in the #metoo era. Pleasure is an elusive thing, love even more so.


Wolff knows how to convey the loneliness in and between lovers, which seems to come directly from how a man imagines a woman. [...] Let us imagine instead, Lina Wolff s novel says, a new language for our desire for the other. NRC (Holland)

Wolff evokes human (power) relationships with skill and ingenuity. NPO Radio 1 (Holland)

From a Swedish lake to Italian aristocrats, Wolff is in full control of her surprises and mischievously mocks the male gaze. Elle (France)

Strange and magnificent. L Obs (France)

The Polyglot Lovers is funny, intelligent and always surprising. Complex and human (all too human . . .), its characters are never the spokesperson for anything but themselves, and certainly not for Lina Wolff, who allows them to live and deal as best they can with their heavy solitude. Livres Hebdo (France)



Dizzying . . . Lina Wolff has written a many-voiced, meandering, feminist, arresting and rather provocative novel. Kulturnytt, Sweden Radio

It s been a long time since I read something this unique, seething, wilful. Svenska Dagbladet

What a novel! I m totally charmed! I was completely absorbed by The Polyglot Lovers . . . it's really, really fabulous. Every sentence is great. [This] is a book to read and discover and read over and over again. Bor s Tidning

Wolff has written a kind of blackened, heart-rending satire on gender roles, in which the tempo of the pacily inventive and downright gorgeous prose complicates, enlivens and plays with the eloquent lovers she s taken it upon herself to portray. Kristofer Folkhammar, Aftonbladet

You know when a novel is so thrilling that you just don t want it to end? That s what it was like reading Lina Wolff s third book The Polyglot Lovers. I had high expectations . . . and yet they were surpassed. Sydsvenskan

Praise for Lina Wolff s Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs

Wolff s prose has a quality of otherness entirely in keeping with the surreal atmosphere of the novel. This strange, provocative debut sits well alongside the work of Roxane Gay, Katherine Angel, Maggie Nelson, Zoe Pilger and Miranda July . . . a cool, clever and fierce addition to the canon of modern feminist literature. Sarah Perry, The Guardian

A filmic offering . . . channelling the spirit of Pedro Almod var. A thoroughly invigorating novel. Lucy Scholes, The Independent

The author demonstrates a marvellous command of language and creates characters with real depth, lending the book a sensual vibe and an acerbic wit that force its emotional truths to rise above the grunge of its hard-boiled setting. A poetic, unsentimental drama that offers a meditation on love in all its disparate forms. Kirkus Reviews

Oddly compelling . . . a European postmodern novel steeped in alienation and ennui. Library Journal

Lina Wolff was born in Lund, Sweden, and lived for several years in Spain and Italy, where she worked as a translator. In 2012 her debut novel,'Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs', won the prestigious Vi Magazine's Literature Award. In 2016 her novel 'The Polyglot Lovers' w

• Language: English
• Publisher: SAGA Egmont
• Release date: Mar 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9788728580707