It took me a good ten years to understand British sarcasm. I thought perhaps it was just me, but recently I became addicted to a Swedish crime podcast, which has made me suspect it might be a national issue.

Maybe you can blame it on the long, gloomy winters, but when Swedes go dark, they go DARK. However, it’s not just the particularly grim nature of the crimes in this podcast that sends a chill down the spine. It’s the way the cases are presented. In pure black and white, with not a single forgiving shade of grey. Because Swedes, like myself, can be extremely literal.

‘That sounds like a good thing,’ you may wish to argue, before hearing a Swedish person discuss their heinous crimes, much like they might tell you what they had for breakfast. It’s as if it doesn’t even occur to them to gloss things over slightly or – arguably even better – lie. Want more details? Just ask and they will walk you through it, horribly and monotonously.

There is little space for the kind of fanciful, figurative wordsmithery so favoured by the Brits, where language serves as good-natured sparring and has so many layers that you can blissfully lose yourself in the folds, until you forget there even was a crime.

In Sweden, there is no such mercy. Things just are what they are, which is why you shouldn’t attempt sarcasm on a Swede without first checking that they do sarcasm. If you tell a Swede that a stormy day is perfect for a picnic, or that you love the way they ruin a good cup of tea, don’t be surprised to find yourself served exactly that in the pouring rain shortly thereafter.

Maria Smedstad bio

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