Ondskan (novel)

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**Ondskan**
Author	Jan Guillou
Country	Sweden
Language	Swedish
Genre(s)	Autobiographical novel
Publisher	P. A. Norstedt
Released	1981
Media Type	Print (Hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 91-1-811332-X

Ondskan is a Swedish novel by Jan Guillou.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Erik Ponti is a sixteen year old boy who faces a lot of violence in his life. At school, he and his gang lend money to other students at high interest, resulting in a punching if they don't pay the money back in time, and also the fact that several teachers maltreat students that don't behave (in the book; in the movie it is not explained so widely). At home he lives with his sadistic stepfather and his mother. One day, he and his gang are caught stealing records from the stores, but because of the loose kind of loyalty in the gang, Erik gets the entire blame, resulting in his expulsion from school (again, in the book; in the movie he's just shown fighting with other students). But circumstances allow him to matriculate into a private boarding school, Stjärnsberg, where he gets a new chance to continue his studies, deciding to try and break away from his earlier violent lifestyle.

But Stjärnsberg isn't as nice and friendly as it seemed from the beginning. Erik has to face new kinds of violence in this school, from "higher students" (members of the 4th class of Swedish gymnasium (senior high school) and members of the school council) instead of teachers. The system carried on with at this school is called "kamratuppfostran" ("schoolmate raising", a cloaking name for a violent kind of bullying especially cheeky students, to keep discipline and order in school). And Erik, being such a kind of person that won't accept injustices, quickly becomes the main target for this school to retrain to obey orders.

In the novel, ondskan (the evil) may be perceived as Erik himself (as bullying other students prior to his departure to Stjärnsberg), as his stepfather (who beats Erik on every occasion), as the indifference of the teachers at Stjärnsberg, or as "kamratuppfostran", which is represented by Otto Silverhielm and Gustaf Dahlén.