Lilla Berlin #6

Ellen Ekman's Lilla Berlin returns for its sixth installment, subtitled Bättre brinna upp än fejda ut — "Better to burn out than to fade away." The cover sets the tone perfectly: a bleary-eyed man in a star-spangled blazer and party hat clutches a martini glass and a cigarette, flanked by two young women against a cracked, hellish red landscape that somehow makes the whole scene feel both festive and doomed. If Ekman's sharp, sardonic eye for Stockholm nightlife and social unraveling is your thing, this 2019 entry looks like exactly the kind of chaotic good time you'd want to crash.