In the late eighties, Sven Lindqvist fell into conversation with an evangelical bodybuilder while relaxing in the sauna after his weekly swim. Their conversation challenged Lindqvist's view of the sport as macho, vain and individualistic, and led to his first attendance at the local gym.

In Bench Press, Lindqvist takes us through his own journey in the gym, but in the process also recounts the entertaining and bizarre history of bodybuilding. He meditates on what its increased popularity tells us about contemporary society, quoting from Arnold Schwarzenegger and other illuminating sources. The book is classic Lindqvist - written in a pared-down, poetic style, it is an intoxicating blend of philosophical and political insight, emotion and strange, forgotten corners of history.