A pioneering work of dystopian fiction from one of Sweden's most acclaimed writers Written
midway between Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four as the terrible events of the Second
World War were unfolding Kallocain depicts a totalitarian 'World State' which seeks to crush
the individual entirely. In this desolate paranoid landscape of 'police eyes' and 'police
ears' the obedient citizen and middle-ranking scientist Leo Kall discovers a drug that will
force anyone who takes it to tell the truth. But can private thought really be obliterated?
Karin Boye's chilling novel of creeping alienation shows the dangers of acquiescence and the
power of resistance no matter how futile. Translated with an introduction by David McDuff
