if he lays a hand on a senior student. When Pierre surrenders to the abuse directed at him to punish Erik and leaves the school, Erik takes to stalking the woods in disguise at night and systematically breaking the nose and teeth of those responsible, when he finds them alone. Marja, fired because of the suspicions of her relationship with Erik, sends him a love letter which the principal uses as grounds to have him expelled, but with the aid of Mr. Ekengren, the family lawyer, Erik threatens legal action over the confiscation of his mail and is allowed to finish his last semester in relative peace. Although not before tracking down his chief tormentor, the chairman of the students' council Otto Silverhjelm, alone in the woods and scaring him into hysteric crying and vomiting. Finishing his basic education with the highest possible grades—barring the lowest possible grade in conduct and behavior—Erik returns home and deals with his father. Semi-autobiographical Jan Guillou has stated that Ondskan is basically a true story. "Some things, like the identity of the love interest, the placing of the swimming pool and such were changed to make the story better. But the stuff you're wondering about - the violence, the crap, the psychological terror - is absolutely true." Indeed, the school Guillou went to was scandalized in the newspapers and bankrupted a few years after his graduation, and he speaks in interviews of his extensive and personal experience of violence. Characters Erik Ponti is a teenager hardened by his abusive stepfather, who rebels against anyone who would use their authority to hurt people, fighting with peerless physical and intellectual prowess. He is the autobiographical alter ego of Jan Guillou, and appear in later novels. Farsan (Dad) is a waiter at a high-class restaurant in Stockholm and Erik's father. A sadist who habitually makes up excuses to beat Erik - but never his little brother - and secretly lets his twin large dobermanns loose to kill a small dog who enters his property, for his amusement. Pierre Tanguy is chubby, unathletic, bespectacled and maybe the most brilliant student ever at Stjärnsberg. He is mostly left alone by bullies who consider him "no challenge", until his friendship with Erik makes him a target. The exception to the rule against teachers abusing students, he is ridiculed by the history teacher who uses his body to point at examples