The fictitiousness is key in Carina Bergfeldt's storytelling. It has been about politics, about interviewing celebrities on the TV sofa. Now she is current with a book about the Swedish slave trade – it's going to be a duology.
PHOTO KAJSA GÖRANSSON

I was shocked myself when I understood the extent of Sweden's colonial ambitions, and everything I hadn't been taught in school.

Carina Bergfeldt, currently promoting her book, is sitting with her legs crossed on her living room sofa when INRIKES calls her via Zoom. She is without make-up, her hair is tied up in a bun, and she is dressed in a fluffy brown pyjama suit. A pair of feet are visible on her lap. They belong to her six-year-old son, who is off nursery due to a stiff neck.
– It's not fun to have pain in places you don't usually have pain, says Carina, looking with a warm smile at her son who is snuggled up in the corner of the sofa, tapping on his iPad. Carina Bergfeldt is a well-known and award-winning journalist, author, and presenter, most famous from TV. She quickly became popular with viewers when
She was a foreign correspondent in the USA for SVT during Donald Trump's first term as president. In recent years, we have, among other things, seen her as the presenter of the talk show that was simply called Carina Bergfeldt samt i reseprogrammet Dreamland. In addition, she has written several books, including the thriller Patricide, which was about domestic violence, and Seven Days Left to Live, which is a documentary book about a man in Texas who has a week left to live.

Carina is currently making waves with her novel *En dag ska vi återvända* (One Day We Shall Return). It is a captivating story where she tackles one of the most swept-under-the-carpet chapters in Swedish history – the era when Sweden tried to become a major power in the slave trade. The plot unfolds in 1790, on the Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy in the Caribbean. Here, four lives are interwoven: a Swedish jurist and his wife, a young woman from the Ashanti Kingdom and her husband. Together, their destinies reflect the brutal reality that Sweden has long chosen to remain silent about.

– I was myself shocked when I understood the extent of Sweden's colonial ambitions, and everything that I wasn't taught in school, says Carina.

– When I realised how much we’d swept under the rug, I knew it was a story I just had to write.

En dag ska vi återvända är vansinnigt spännande och intressant läsning. Jag gissar att du la ned väldigt mycket tid på research. Hur tog du dig an uppgiften?
– Det har varit ett jättejobb. Nio år in the making. Jag ville verkligen ha på fötterna när jag skrev den här berättelsen. Det handlar om ett ämne som vi vetat ganska lite om, men där forskningen verkligen går framåt. I Aix-en Provence finns väldigt många av dokumenten kring den här tidsperioden bevarade i och med att St Barts numera är ett franskt område. Det finns väldigt många tusentals sidor från den här tidsperioden ansågs vara förstörda av orkaner, regn, mögel och århundraden. Uppsala universitet jobbar som tusan med detta nu och de har lyckats rädda och återskapa ungefär 30 000 sidor av de dokument som man trodde var förlorade. Därför är det ett spännande ämne där det hela tiden kommer ny information.

Do you think that those who have held power in Sweden over the centuries hoped the documents would be lost forever?
– I don't know, but what's clear is that this is a part of Sweden's history that Sweden hasn't been keen to talk about. When you and I were at school, this wasn't part of the curriculum. It's only in the last ten years that schoolchildren have been taught that Sweden was a slave nation. I was completely stunned when I realised this, because it completely changed my perception of Sweden. We boast so much about our country, about neutrality, that we haven't had wars for two hundred years, that we have such a good reputation in the world, and so on. Carina further says that Sweden was envious of Denmark, which made a lot of money from the slave trade.
Gustav III's third attempt to become part of this was in every way, but he was bad at negotiating so he ended up buying a rubbish island.

St Barts var en karg och otillgänglig ö. Ön hade inga vattenkällor och det var svårt att få saker att växa. Det var på så sätt en skitö, men det ön hade var en riktigt bra hamn. För att Sverige skulle vara med och tjäna pengar på slavhandeln så inrättade man ett frihandelsområde där det var gratis för alla att importera slavar till St Barts, och sedan var det väldigt billigt att exportera dem. Så med de siffrorna som kommit fram nu så kan man säga att minst 8 000–10 000 människor såldes med svensk medverkan. På det stora hela så var det totalt 12,5 miljoner slavar som såldes under den här tidsperioden. Med tanke på det så kanske inte 10 000 verkar så mycket – men det vore ändå väldigt nonchalant att påstå att 10 000 människor är ‘lite’!

Your book is an important history lesson, while also being exciting reading.
– Yes, I want the book to be a history lesson where you don't realise it's about real history. I want you to learn things.

You worked on the book at the same time as you did your talk show. How did that work out?
- What has been incredibly luxurious about these ten seasons of the talk show is that I've had my cake and eaten it too. I've had spring and autumn seasons of the show and in between there was space for me to go to Ghana and follow in the footsteps of the people the book is about. I could work at SVT with the talk show and in between be free to dedicate myself to this book project. There will be a second book, so it will be a duology – a nice word that I didn't know until I started working on this book.

What is your main driving force as a journalist, presenter, and author?
– I think it's because I'm curious about people. You don't have to share ideological views with others to find it interesting to talk to them. I'm curious about all people, not least when I was filming the documentary series '6 Days to Live' about people on death row in the USA. I've met many people who have committed terrible crimes, but I still find it interesting to talk to them. My driving force is to tell stories; to talk to people and get them to open up in an interview, or to write and tell something the reader didn't know. It might sound pretentious, but it's my calling.

Is being able to put yourself in other people's shoes and feel empathy an asset in your profession?
– Jag tror att folk känner av om man är ärligt intresserad på riktigt eller om man låtsas, särskilt folk som har varit med om svårigheter har såna tentakler ute. Och jag tror att när du själv kanske har något som har varit tufft eller svårt i din bakgrund så kanske det finns lite mer förståelse för att livet kanske inte alltid är så lätt. Det kanske kan ge mig möjligheten att möta människor på ett bra sätt. Jag känner att jag har lätt för att prata med offer, människor som har varit med om hemska saker. Jag tycker inte att det är jobbigt att ‘gå in i’ deras sorg,
It doesn't scare me. I have great respect for grief and I prefer to talk to people when some time has passed and they want to tell and reflect on things they've experienced.

How did it work when you wrote "One Day We Will Return", given that there were no living people?
People to interview?
– Det var nog det svåraste med att skriva boken, att jag var tvungen att hitta på dialoger och sådant. Men jag har haft en otrolig hjälp av den dokumentation jag har fått tillgång till, så att jag har kunnat skildra riktiga rättsfall. Huvudkaraktärerna i boken är påhittade, men alla rättsfall som skildras i boken har hänt på riktigt. Carina tittar på klockan. Hon måste snart avsluta intervjun. Det är dags för henne att göra sig i ordning för att åka i väg och filma det näst sista avsnittet av sin talkshow. Sonens nakna fötter sprattlar fortfarande i hennes knä och maken Jesper sitter lite längre bort i soffan och scrollar på sin mobil. Trots att hon har ett pressat schema och fortfarande är klädd i myskläder verkar hon inte det minsta stressad.

You look content with life. What makes you truly happy?
– My child and my husband. When it comes to my work, I love it when I manage to craft a really good sentence. Beautiful sentences in texts are among the things that make me happiest in life. It sounds very nerdy, but it's true.

Det finns en mening som jag är extra stolt över: "I min famn kan du dö som ett barn, bortglömd av alla andra, men högt älskad av mig." Jag känner att det är en stark och känslomässig mening som fångar känslan i boken.
– I enjoy listening to song lyrics, I can get stuck on a particular phrase in a song. I like Taylor Swift, among others, because she writes great lyrics. She has a song where she sings that her good name is hers to ruin. I borrowed that phrase for One Day We'll Return. Axel, who is one of the main characters in the book, is sitting in his first chapter at Den Gyldene Freden in 1790, and there he raises his glass and quotes Taylor Swift.,
but he doesn't know about that. Carina laughs and concludes:
– ‘A toast to my good name, which is mine alone to ruin.’ I was incredibly pleased with that sentence.

3 QUICK
Watching: “The dogs. It's a really good series. It's stylish and snappy. Superb script, superb actors.”
Listening to: “Taylor Swift. Always. Or Miss Li when I want to cheer myself up.”
Reading: “My friends' books. I'm lucky to have friends who are insanely creative.

FAVOURITE PLACES IN SWEDEN:
“The summer cottage on the West Gothian plain is number one favourite place, all categories. It is paradise on earth. When we are there, our son is close to lots of cousins. It is wonderful to see him rolling around on the grass and jumping on the trampoline with his cousins, while my siblings and I, along with our partners, sit and barbecue by a lake in the middle of nowhere in the woods.”

“We have a spa near where we live that my husband and I usually escape to at least once a month. We arrange for a babysitter, and then we go to our favourite spa and enjoy the steam room, talk, dream, and come up with new programme ideas together.”
“Arlanda Express. The feeling when you get on the train and are soon to fly off on an exciting reporting trip is outstanding. I love travelling and doing reports, even though I now like coming home again.”

CARINA BERGFELDT
Age: 46.
Bor Stockholm.
Family Her son Hamilton, aged 6, and husband Jesper, a TV producer.
Occupation Journalist, author and presenter.
Background in brief: Jobbade som journalist på Aftonbladet i tio år. Började sin tv-karriär som SVT:s korrespondent i USA 2016–2020. Var programledare för talkshowen Carina Bergfeldt i tio säsonger. Gjorde flera serier av reseprogrammet Drömlandet tillsammans med Farah Abadi. Har skrivit flera kriminalromaner och reportageböcker som sålts till ett femtontal länder. På SVT Play kan man just nu se dokumentärserien 6 dagar kvar att leva där Carina intervjuade människor på death row i USA.
Currently With the novel One day we will return, som är den första delen i en episk romansvit i två delar.