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The Milking
Maybe you can go home again? The Milking is a sensual, playful story about reconciling your past. And cows.
Reeling from a breakup with her girlfriend, Ellen finds herself driving to the small farm where she grew up, a place she’s done everything she can to leave behind.
The new owners are on vacation, but the hidden key is in the same spot. She enters the house, just to look around. She’s so tired: she’ll stay one night. But then she just can’t leave. Everything and nothing is familiar, including the neighbour Max, her childhood friend. The cows are gone, and the barn closed down, yet the taste of fresh milk lingers on her tongue like when she was a child, and the smell of manure is still in her nose.
Who can really say that the place isn’t hers? It’s so much a part of her. The country, with its smells and sounds, its hardships and shame, has drawn her back. Maybe as the small family farm and its way of life recede further into the distance, Ellen can find some solace in her past – hopefully before the new owners return…
Winner of the Borås Tidning Award for Best Literary Debut (Borås Tidnings debutantpris), 2024
Winner of the Prisma Literary Award, Novel of the Year (Årets roman), 2023
Nominated for the Katapult Prize for Debut Fiction (Katapultpriset), 2024
Sanna Samuelsson was also awarded the Swedish Radio Short Story Prize in 2025
‘An extraordinarily multi-layered and exquisite novel… She deftly intermingles social realism with the narrator’s personal story.’ – Aftonbladet
‘The simultaneously reassuring and mortifying smell of manure is a constant throughout Sanna Samuelsson’s strong debut novel. It’s a nuanced and tender story about belonging, both to a class and a place, written intimately close to animals and nature.’ – Svenska Dagbladet
‘A sensual story of homecomings and a striking depiction of rural change… An impressive debut.’ – Barometern
‘Non-romanticizing and sensual depiction of rural life.’ – Sveriges Radio
‘Sanna Samuelsson’s novel is extraordinarily multi-layered and beautiful.’ – Amelie Bjorck, Aftonbladet
‘Sanna Samuelsson’s debut novel is like no other.’ – Dagens Nyheter
There are no awards found for this book.
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Details
Dimensions:
140 Pages
5.0in * 8.0in * 0.3in
0.4lb
Published:
April 06, 2027
Publisher:
ISBN:
9781552455340
Book Subjects:
Featured In:
Language:
eng
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