The shrunken space of the pandemic. A broken relationship. Grief for a dying mother and the creeping shadow of illness. When the celebrated Swedish writer Johanna Ekstrom found out that she was dying from an eye melanoma she asked her closest friend, Sigrid Rausing, to finish her last book. Rausing transcribed and edited the thirteen handwritten notebooks left by Ekstrom. The result is a memoir of exceptional depth and intensity, published to critical acclaim in Sweden in 2023. The work showcases Ekstrom’s vivid imagination, writerly precision, and psychological insight, interwoven with Rausing’s spare and sober reflections. And the Walls Became the World All Around is a literary experiment, a testament to friendship, and a deep meditation on grief.
