What is the author's style in Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist?

The book was not originally written in English and the version read today is transcribed from another language. Though this version is fairly easy to read and understand, there are some quirks that some readers may find distracting. For example, there are no quotation marks used. When a character is talking, the words are proceeded by a dash (-) and the character's statement simply follows. For the most part, the quotation is alone in a paragraph, making it somewhat easier to discern the beginning and ending of the quote.