Srab

A novel about bullying, the inability to resist and a reluctance to accept oneself.

It was all just a game and an admitted pose: putting horror themes to music, stylising themselves as bullies and murderers, wearing scary masks on stage. Until Ripper picked up a real weapon and turned the fake posturing into reality. Because things had been simmering under the surface for a long time.

Who is Ripper? A young lad who has a girlfriend, a future and a successful band. But he also has a despotic cousin, self-esteem so low you can't get under it, mental health problems and a huge amount of anger towards someone who once hurt his girlfriend.

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When we talk about violence, for example, between people who are close, the whole thing can often seem like a triviality on the outside, something that will fizzle out into oblivion as soon as people grow up. But the consequences can be huge, especially when there's a lack of support and the situation lasts for a significant part of one's life: a lifelong feeling of inadequacy, worthlessness and so on.

The way my narrator deals with the whole situation is quite extreme. So I hope that the book might have something to say to people who have had someone standing menacingly behind their back for a long time and who still haunts their mind. After all, writing it was, in a way, very personal for me.