A combination of memoir and travelogue, Fishing in Utopia, winner of this year's Orwell Prize, documents the hold a country can have over a man. Andrew Brown follows his Swedish girlfriend back to her homeland and at first reaps the benefits of the social democratic idyll. But when the dream - both personal and national - unravels, Brown moves back to England. When Swedish prime minister Olof Palme is murdered, he feels prompted to return and explore the country that had once been his sanctuary. Brown's description of the Swedish landscape is evocative and his reverent recounting of the soothing ritual of fishing is so lyrical that, thankfully, you need not be an aficionado to be touched by it.