Many of us dive into books, living in other places and as other people for as long as the pages last. If we're lucky, the book is so good that the characters leap from the pages into our world, permeating our thoughts as we go through daily routines. Though small, this sculpture by Swedish artist Ralf Borselius is for me the quintessence of this beautiful dynamic. Even better, it is a monument to a book written by a woman author, Swede Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940), the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Entitled "Sprungen ur boken" (Out of the Book), the sculpture was unveiled on November 24, 2006, in Karlskrona, Sweden, to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of Lagerlöf's book, "Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige" (Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey across Sweden). In the book and its second volume, which was published in 1907, mischievous 14-year-old Nils flies around Sweden on the back of a goose, taking in the country from top to tail. He runs into some trouble along the way, including in Karlskrona, which is perhaps why he's fleeing the pages of his own story. An English translation of the two volumes entitled "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" is available to download for free at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2SDQanJ. You can also see Nils' journey mapped out at WikiVoyage: https://tinyurl.com/y822c6fk. Personal photo from January 4, 2018, in Karlskrona, Sweden. #SelmaLagerlöf #RalfBorselius #NilsHolgersson #Art #Literature #Sweden #Sculpture #WomenWriters #Reading #Traveling (at Amiralitetskyrkan Ulrica Pia) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsS-nJjgl25/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1t8cymye4mqa3
