Cigarette

Stockholm. Early summer, 1989. Johan is a young waiter working at the Hard Rock Café. His nights are filled with parties, drugs, booze and MTV. An endless chase of the next girl, the next high... the next music video.

The first book in a loose trilogy, when Cigarette was first published in Sweden it heralded the arrival of a bold new voice in contemporary nordic literature. A troubadour of 1990s’ metropolitan nightlife, Nordisk Books is delighted to publish Per Hagman’s electric début in English for the first time, thanks to Elinor Fahrman’s crisp translation.

Tom introduces me to a couple of girls that I recognise from Dailys and they turn out to be Tina and Mimi. He asks if I want champagne and hands me a bottle of fizzy wine. I open it and when the cork hits the ceiling with a bang Viktor turns around and says hello and I say hello as I lift the bottle to my mouth. Just as I’m lighting a cigarette a champagne cork lands on my head and I turn around and Micke is laughing out loud and asks how things are and I say fine and he asks me if I have any coke and I say no and he says maybe you want some of mine then. He turns to Tom and smiles and asks if he has a free mirror and Tom laughs and says sure. Jocke enters the room and asks me how things are and I say splendid and watch Tom as he grabs the girl on the table who’s still on the phone. He stands her up and starts looking for a mirror amongst the ashtrays and bottles. I notice that both the TV sets are on but no one is watching. One of them is showing some music video and the other a black and white film. Tom hands Micke the mirror and he chops up some lines and one of the girls (Tina?) rolls up a tenner and Micke hands her the mirror and she snorts a line.