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Silas Aliki
Silas Aliki
Silas Aliki, born in 1987 in Gävle, is the founder of Folkets Advokatbyrå and currently works there as a lawyer. Also a political editor at Kontext. In addition, active as a freelance writer and lecturer, with previous experience including work as a professional military officer and as a discussion leader for young transgender people.
The Rules
Silas Aliki’s debut novel The Rules unfolds in an austere, enclosed world, where the primary-school boy Ette—whom some regard as a girl—grows up. In his family, tenderness is absent and violence ever-present. Ette develops strategies to understand the strict rules that seem to originate with his father.
In the absence of care, he seeks closeness in objects and retreats into a fantasy forest where different rules apply. He would disappear there forever, if not for the fact that he must remain and protect his younger sister. When the situation becomes unbearable, he decides that the two of them must leave home.
The Rules is a novel about class and violence, and about the longing for tenderness and freedom that persists even in the most barren places.
Original title: Reglerna
Publication: Albert Bonniers Förlag, January 2026
“The Rules is, in every respect, a deeply tragic novel. But unlike the adult world, it remains consistently loyal to the child.”
– Dagens Nyheter
"I read it in one sitting. So incredibly beautiful. Heartbreakingly sad. Like The Brothers Lionheart for sad adults."
– Malin Persson Giolito
“The Rules is a novel that fully inhabits the child’s perspective — an ambition many writers share when portraying children, especially those in vulnerable situations, but one few achieve as successfully as Aliki. […] The betrayal of the child is enormous, unforgivable, and the outcome brutal. Yes, it is a difficult book to read, but one I am very glad Aliki has written.”
– Sydsvenskan
“I would argue that Silas Aliki’s The Rules already belongs among the strongest debuts of the year — precisely because it refuses to simplify and insists on the human being’s right to be whole.”
– Arbetarbladet
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