To Kill a Child

To Kill a Child (Swedish: Att döda ett barn) is a short story by Stig Dagerman. It was published in 1948 and was likely the most famous of Stig Dagerman's texts. The short story can be found in the Swedish posthumous collections Vårt behov av tröst (1955) and Dikter, noveller, prosafragment (1981).

To Kill a Child
AuthorStig Dagerman
Original titleAtt döda ett barn
LanguageSwedish
GenreShort story
Set inSweden
Published1948
PublisherNational Society for Road Safety
Original text
Att döda ett barn at Swedish Wikisource
TranslationTo Kill a Child at Wikisource

Background

The short story was written in 1948[1] for the National Society for Road Safety in an attempt to slow down the traffic and decrease the amount of traffic accidents.[2]

Plot

In a scaled and clear prose, but with a fateful feel, the everyday life of the involved characters is depicted before one of them unintentionally hits a small child with a car. The readers know what will happen from the very start and the author works with a narration technique called planting. In the short story there exists very few details of the people involved which means that anyone can imagine themselves as the characters and relate to them. In the short story there are multiple plot lines since two courses of events happen simultaneously.

Adaptations

Two films have been made based on the short story, To Kill a Child (1953) and To Kill a Child (2003). The latter was directed by Alexander Skarsgård.

References
  1. "To Kill a Child". Svensk Filmdatabas (in Swedish). Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  2. "To Kill a Child". Nationalföreningen för trafiksäkerhetens främjande (NTF) (in Swedish). Retrieved 20 August 2015.
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