Life in Every Breath: Ester Blenda: Reporter, Adventurer, Pioneer

by Fatima Bremmer, Laura Jennings (Read by), Gloria Nneoma Onwuneme (Translator)

Overview

An award-winning biography of one of the first undercover journalists—a pioneering Swedish woman who lived a fascinating life of adventure and forbidden love and who changed journalism forever.

Born in 1891 in Stockholm, Ester Blenda Nordström defied stereotypes from an early age. She wore trousers, smoked a pipe, and rode motorbikes, much to the chagrin of her esteemed family. As a young woman, she captivated the public as Sweden’s first investigative journalist.

Ester’s real passion was uncovering the truth, which she did by inhabiting the lives of others. Under an assumed identity, she toiled as a Swedish milkmaid on a farm, lived for six months with the Indigenous Scandinavian Sami people, and journeyed to America alongside poor emigrants aspiring to a better life. She saved villages from starvation during the Finnish Civil War and joined an expedition to study volcanoes in Siberia. Her groundbreaking reports were received by a spellbound audience and would change journalism forever.

But just as Ester’s star was rising, her forbidden love affair with a woman ended in heartbreak, nearly destroying her. Her spectacular adventures and untamed heart concealed an inner turmoil that threatened to silence her powerful voice, but Ester’s life and spirit were ultimately irrepressible.

Life in Every Breath brings Ester’s story back to the fore—and showcases one of the most fascinating women of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781713663362
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	10/18/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Fatima Bremmer is a Swedish journalist and author. In 2017, Life in Every Breath was awarded the August Prize. Upon the book’s success in Sweden, she curated a follow-up exhibition on Nordström at Skarhults Castle in Skåne. She is currently working on a new biography.

Gloria Nneoma Onwuneme is Nigerian born and was raised in Scandinavia. She is a freelance translator of Swedish, Danish, and German; a United Kingdom–trained medical doctor; and a bit of a bookworm. She currently lives and works in London.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

1 Sweden's Most Famous Maid 3

2 The Terrible Child 32

3 The Boy, Elin Wagner, and the League 55

4 Bansai and the Sharp Hatpin 7 77

5 Peasant Uprisings and Forbidden Letters 95

6 Ester Becomes Ester Blenda 106

7 The Nomadic Teacher 129

8 With the Tent Folk of the Far North 144

9 A Summer with Elin Wagner 172

10 War Hero and Author of Girls' Books 202

11 On Muleback across the Andes 235

12 Train Hopping in America 256

13 In the Shadow of a Volcano 293

14 A Farm of One's Own 324

15 The Catastrophe 354

Epilogue 369

Acknowledgments 373

Sources 375

About the Author 431

About the Translator 433

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2022

Journalist Bremmer debuts with a tantalizing biography of Sweden’s first investigative reporter, Ester Blenda Nordström (1891–1948). In 1914, Nordström went undercover as a maid in rural Smörland County, documenting the harsh working conditions and poor pay that were contributing to the “so-called maid problem” as young women chose urban factory jobs or immigration to America over farm work. Nordström also lived for a year as a nomadic teacher among the indigenous Sami people of Lapland, publishing articles and a book that “showed solidarity and connection with the native northern people,” Bremmer writes, but also romanticized their “peculiar lifestyle” and strengthened the position of those who argued that the Sami should be segregated from the rest of Swedish society in order to preserve their culture. In addition to her reportage, Nordström wrote a series of children’s books starring an “impulsive wild child” named Ann-Mari Lindelöf, a precursor to Pippi Longstocking. Throughout, Bremmer tracks the ups and downs of Nordström’s long, secret love affair with Carin Wærn Frisell, at a time when homosexuality “was both punishable by law and classified as a mental disorder.” Richly textured and vividly told, this is an intriguing portrait of a pioneering woman and her era. Photos. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Life in Every Breath

“Journalist Bremmer debuts with a tantalizing biography of Sweden’s first investigative reporter, Ester Blenda Nordström…Richly textured and vividly told, this is an intriguing portrait of a pioneering woman and her era.” —Publishers Weekly

“Despite her fame, time has made Nordström fade into obscurity, but Bremmer does her justice with a story that remains relevant and captivating today.” —Shondaland

International Praise for Life in Every Breath

“The strongest biography I have read in a long time, not only because I fell for Ester Blenda’s life-embracing charm early on but more so that Bremmer handles sensitive material in the best way…A book like this, if there is any justice in the literary world, will be richly hailed and rewarded.” —Svenska Dagbladet

“Rich, fun, educational…the best title of the year.” —Dagens Nyheter

“Life in Every Breath is such a wonderfully straightforward portrait…Fatima Bremmer’s biography is a triumph, both because of her prose and because Blenda Nordström’s life resembles a fantastic melodrama.” —Aftonbladet

From the Publisher