Supporting Act

Agnes Lidbeck is one of Sweden's most prominent and versatile contemporary writers. She made her literary debut with Supporting Act in 2017, which was shortlisted for the Svenska Dagbladet Prize and won the Boras Tidning Debut Novel Prize. She went on to write Foerlaten ('Forgiven', 2018), Ga foerlorad ('Get Lost', 2019), Nikes bok ('Nike's Book', 2021) and All min karlek ('All my Love', 2023). Lidbeck also writes for the stage and is known for her sharp, minimalist style.

'A powerhouse novel about the construction and execution of female identity. In its pages, motherhood, marriage and the very notion of care are meticulously deconstructed. What a writer Agnes Lidbeck is - bold, blisteringly intelligent, deliciously playful.'- Katie Kitamura, author of Audition and Intimacies'Taut, restrained, fiercely frank, Agnes Lidbeck's SUPPORTING ACT is a feminist tour de force.'- Claire Messud, author of This Strange Eventful History'Perfectly captures the feminised dream-state of caring - and living - for others.'- Stephanie Sy-Quia, author of A Private Man and Amnion'As a meditation of the role of women, the novel's bluntness belies its complexity. Lidbeck brilliantly depicts the psychology of a person bent on moulding themselves to others' desires.' - Literary Review'In my years as a literary critic I have rarely come across anything like it. Supporting Act is a sensational debut.'- Expressen 'Agnes Lidbeck's cold, precise prose scrutinizes the fulfillment of the demands and rituals of love.'- Svenska Dagbladet 'Agnes Lidbeck has written a sharp and haunting debut.'- Kulturnytt, Radio P1 'A powerful novel about submission.'- Vi Laser Magazine 'It is a striking satire... In the details, in the attention to the social game and, in the psychological realism of the moments, Supporting Act is at times genius.'- Nordvastra Skanes Tidningar'Sometimes you come across real gems: books that are interesting, well-written and well balanced between a neat linguistic style and an engaging story. Rarely, they come from debutants. Agnes Lidbeck's debut novel, about women's roles, self-realization and being content, is an exception.'- Boras Tidning‘It’s an immersive, feminist, sui generis feat of sustained bluntness, and even if Lidbeck had never written another novel (she now has five to her name), this singular debut would be enough to secure her status as one of contemporary literature’s most striking writers...Lidbeck’s pithy sentences bring to mind the minimalist tendencies of Lydia Davis or even Peter Stamm à la Michael Hofmann, but her narrative voice, meaningful even in its monotonous moments, is all her own, radiating a strangely distant authorial control...a true work of art, astonishing and refreshing in its honesty and clarity.’ - Jason Gordy Walker, Asymptote