Göran Tunström was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 author. He grew up in Sunne

Sunne, Sweden

Sunne is a locality and the seat of Sunne Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden with 4,903 inhabitants in 2005.The town straddles the sound connecting Övre Fryken with Mellan-Fryken...

, Värmland County

Värmland County

Värmland County is a county or län in west central Sweden. It borders the Swedish counties of Dalarna, Örebro and Västra Götaland, as well as the Norwegian counties of Østfold, Akershus and Hedmark to the west.- Province :...

. Tunström's style is personal and intimate, and has a clear autobiographical tone. Although active as an established author for nearly four decades, it was particularly after his The Christmas Oratorio was adapted as a movie in 1996 that he became widely known to the (Swedish) public.

Sunne, the author's home town, plays an important role in his works. Swedish as well as international celebrities appear in the town and take part in the story.The cover paintings of his first two books about Sunne (De heliga geograferna and Guddöttrarna) are made by the painter Tage Åsén

Tage Åsén

Tage Åsén is a Swedish graphic artist and painter.He works in a technique which has been described by art critics as super-realistic or hyper-realistic. The motif in his paintings is a critical "social surrealism" that is predicated on a dark and wry humour...

 from the same town.

In the late 50's he lived on the Greek island of Hydra

Hydra, Saronic Islands

Hydra is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece, located in the Aegean Sea between the Saronic Gulf and the Argolic Gulf. It is separated from the Peloponnese by narrow strip of water...

 and became friends with Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

 and the Norwegian author Axel Jensen

Axel Jensen

Axel Buchardt Jensen was a Norwegian author. From 1957 until 2002 he published both fiction and non-fiction texts which include novels, poems, essays, a biography, manuscripts for cartoons and animated films....

.

He participated in the Oslo International Poetry Festival, OIPF.

He was married to artist Lena Cronqvist, and was the father of film director Linus Tunström.

Selected works

• Maskrosbollen, 1962
• De heliga geograferna, 1973
• Guddöttrarna, 1975
• Prästungen, 1976
• Ökenbrevet - (The Letter From the Wilderness), 1978
• Juloratoriet - (The Christmas Oratorio), 1983
• Tjuven - (The Thief), 1986
• Skimmer - (Glittering), 1996
• Berömda män som varit i Sunne, 1998