Peter, you have recently published a book about Greenland and its people together with Mats Andréasson.
What sparked your interest in Greenland?
I came to Greenland for the first time almost 20 years ago and have longed to return ever since. Greenland is like nothing else I have seen and experienced in my life: An island that is five times larger than Sweden and 80 percent covered by inland ice, which in some places is three thousand meters thick.
My co-author Mats Andreásson, who also took most of the book's outstanding pictures, had been there several times before. I immediately said yes when he asked if I wanted to help write the book. Over the past two years, we have made three trips to Greenland, we have traveled in the north, west and east. For example, we have traveled on the ice with dog sleds as far north as you can get, to Siorapaluk where about thirty people live. I have never been so cold before.
The book is a travelogue in words and pictures. We have written it because we love Greenland, the world's largest island: Our meetings with people. Our meetings with the magnificent and endless nature, often with extreme weather conditions. And our meetings with a culture that is carried by stories and legends about how people once came across the sea ice from the west to find settlements on an island that is largely covered by the thick inland ice. They named it Kalallit Nunaat, which means the Land of the People.

The book is called "Greenland, a journey in the land of the people". How were you received during your travels in the country?
We were met with great kindness and hospitality. I think that hospitality is deeply rooted in people in a roadless country where the villages are isolated from each other. My experience is that Greenlanders are happy to stop and talk to those who are strangers and who bring news from outside.

The text touches on climate, culture and colonization. How do people view the future in Greenland?
Yes, it is a book that, among other things, addresses the change in climate. It is so obvious to those who have lived close to nature and in interaction with nature all their lives. The sea ice, which is necessary for hunting and for traveling between the villages in winter, is forming later and later in the autumn and breaking up earlier and earlier in the spring. And the sea ice is not as thick as it was a few decades ago and does not extend as far out to sea. It affects the living conditions for both people and animals.
Still, I think that many Greenlanders see the future quite brightly. Greenland, which has been part of Denmark since colonial times, is becoming increasingly independent. The rich fishing is a good source of income and tourism is increasing. But at the same time, we encountered poverty, overcrowding and unemployment among young people. There is no black or white in Greenland. But there isn't anywhere else either. Every society struggles with its problems.

Who have you written for?
The book is aimed at many readers. To those who are curious about what it is like to live in Greenland, to those who want to know more about the country's history and culture, to those who want to know more about how the climate changes from year to year.
And simply put: we are addressing everyone who wants to read a travelogue in pictures and text – and which is beautifully designed by Per Kollberg. Travel to Greenland. It is an experience for life. We always long to return.
And we are now planning that the next book will be about what it is like to live in the Arctic. A book that stretches from Sápmi to Greenland, Canada and Alaska. Who knows, maybe we'll meet somewhere along the way…