In Eyvind Johnson's total production of half a century we can follow a line of protagonists, narrators, and observers who mirror the author's own development, his aging, and change of social and intellectual status, from the young and struggling writer Torsten in Stad i ljus (1928) to old Favel-Hyth, the "professional spectator and narrator," in Favel ensam (1968)…. It is interesting to note that no Johnson novel since the Krilon books has been exclusively set in Sweden. The "international" protagonists could be seen to personify the author's ideal of European cultural unity through a breaking down of national boundaries, paralleling similar attempts, in the historical novels, to obliterate time barriers between epochs. (p. 452)

Några steg mot tystnaden presents a number of familiar themes and technical preoccupations from earlier Johnson novels, such as the exploration of personal and historical pasts and the tenuous line between fact and fiction, and recapitulates...