Sara Lidman
Sara Lidman (born Sara Adéla Lidman; 30 December 1923 – 17 June 2004) was a Swedish writer. She was born in Missenträsk, in northern Sweden, and grew up in Västerbotten. She studied at Uppsala University but had to stop when she got tuberculosis. Her first big success came with the novel Tjärdalen (The Tar Still). In this book and in Hjortronlandet (The Cloudberry Field) she wrote about alienation and isolation, focusing on the hard life of poor farmers in Västerbotten in the 1800s.
Lidman is considered one of the most important Swedish writers of the 20th century. She blended everyday speech with Biblical language, linking the worldly and the spiritual. Her early work also carried strong socialist political themes. She protested the Vietnam War, even traveling to North Vietnam and taking part in the Russell Tribunal. She spoke out against apartheid in South Africa, supported miners’ strikes in 1969–1970, and was active in Communist and environmentalist movements.
From 1977 to 1985 she wrote a series of seven novels about the colonization of northern Sweden. She received many prizes, including the Nordic Council Literature Prize for Vredens barn. She was married to Hans Gösta Skarby. She died in Umeå, Sweden, in 2004 at the age of 80.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:42 (CET).