Gentlemen
By Klas Ostergren
Translated by Tiina Nunnally
Canongate £16.99, 464 pages
FT bookshop price £13.59

It has taken 30 years for this classic of European literature to make it into English. Not that this snub has turned Klas Ostergren bitter. As well as writing books and screenplays, he has also translated into his native Swedish the likes of David Hare, Ted Hughes and Harold Pinter.