Summary

A two-page preface presents a crime scene at a prestigious Stockholm prep school after a school shooting has taken place. The reader views the scene through the eyes of Maja Norberg, the 18-year old protagonist and first-person narrator, who sits in the middle of the classroom in a state of shock at what has just happened. Maja sees Dennis lying on the floor; he is a trade school student from Uganda, who lives in a home "for people like him" (3). Lying next to him is Samir, who, like Maja, attends the school's special program in international economics and social sciences. By the lectern in the front of the room, the overturned mug of her homeroom teacher Christer Svensson, "a self-described social reformer" (3), drips coffee on his pants leg. Her best friend Amanda, only a few feet away, is propped up against the...