We Go to the Park (Kirkus Best YA Book of 2024)

We Go to the Park is a beautiful, lyrical meditation on going to the park to play—which extends into a reflection on life itself—from Booker Prize-longlisted author Sara Stridsberg, and the inimitable, award-winning illustrator Beatrice Alemagna!

Translated from Swedish by B.J. Woodstein

A Kirkus Best YA Book of 2024!
One of Maria Popova’s Marginalian Favorites of 2024!

The park beckons us to leave our daily routines behind and enter its zone of endless possibility. In the park, the usual rules don’t apply. In the park, what matters most is the moment, and losing track of time to the timelessness of imagination, invention, observation, and chance. In the park, there are risks, of course, but also the deepest rewards, to be found in the freedom experienced through play that is both embodied and participatory. It is not the lone “I,” but the “we” that goes to the park, where chance encounters might suddenly become moments of deep connection—however fleeting—with others, nature, and ourselves.

Originally published in Sweden, this first English–language edition printed in Italy on thick cream paper offers an immersive experience of transformation, longing, and transcendence to readers of all ages, while reminding adult readers in particular of the everyday miracle contained in encountering another consciousness.

Sara Stridsberg is an acclaimed Swedish author and playwright. Her international breakthrough, The Faculty of Dreams, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize in 2018. In 2021, she became a member of Sweden’s Society of the Nine, which promotes Swedish literature, peace, and women’s issues. She is also the author of picture book The Summer of Diving (a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2022).

Beatrice Alemagna (You Can’t Kill Snow White, Telling Stories Wrong, Child of Glass, On a Magical Do-Nothing Day) has written and illustrated dozens of children’s books. The recipient of three New York Times Best Illustrated Awards, she has also been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award seven times and shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award twice. Born in Bologna, Italy, she lives and works in Paris, France.

B.J. Woodstein is a Swedish-to-English translator, writer, editor, and doula. She is the English-language translator of The Summer of Diving by Sara Stridsberg, illustrated by Sara Lundberg, and The Book That Did Not Want to be Read by David Sundin, illustrated by Alexis Holmqvist. She lives with her wife and their daughters in Norwich, England.