STOCKHOLM – Last week there was a release party of sorts for Sven Lindström’s new book about Roxette; “Roxette – den osannolika resan tur och retur” (e-version here) (“Roxette – the Improbable Journey Back and Forth”). Attending were select parts of Roxette, namely Per Gessle, Dea Norberg, Clarence Öfwerman and Pelle Alsing, plus some from Parlophone, Live Nation, friends of Sven’s and of course Norstedts – the publisher.

This is the second book Sven has written about Per, the former being “Att vara Per Gessle,” a 2.2 kg (5 lbs) heavy epic about Being Per Gessle. Sven has a very interesting writing style, which is very captivating. The book starts off from the beginning in 1985-’86 and goes through all major eras of Roxette in the world. From the breakthrough in the US to the mad years in South America, up to last fall. I wouldn’t say the info in the book is new to someone like for instance me, but it was still interesting to read it the way Sven writes it. In my opinion the best, and saddest, part of the book was how Micke Bolyos reacted to Marie’s near death sentence. I won’t give any spoilers, should that even be necessary, but I shed a few tears reading it. It made the whole thing even worse somehow. Another interesting thread is how Roxette was (mis)treated by EMI USA.

“Roxette – den osannolika resan…” is a very nice read. And I forgot to mention that the second half of the book is about 6 fans extraordinaire, which Sven has interviewed while being on the tour. Brazilian, Russian, Swedish/Polish, Argentinian and German fans are all in there, with their stories. I know that Sven wanted US and Chinese fans to be in there but apparently that didn’t pan out.

Sven lets us know that the book will hopefully be translated into English and Spanish, but nothing is for certain yet. Sven and Norstedts want it of course.

Even if you don’t speak or read Swedish, try it, you might like it!

My only concern with this book is that there is not nearly enough pictures (16 pages.) Maybe I was spoiled by “Att vara Per Gessle” which had hundreds of nice shots. Other than that, this is a great book about Roxette.