Reviews

Her Stockholm is cold, exposed and lonely, and her protagonist and narrator more often than not wanders the streets alone, rejected by both lovers and society.

Do not choose to read it alone, in a house with many large, curtainless windows, standing on its own.

‘None of us can say we didn’t know. Now you know too’.

Kallifatides has created a powerful portrait of a remarkable woman, who overcomes the privations of her childhood to become a respected painter of icons.

A complicated but nicely plotted cloak-and-dagger thriller, sweetened by an affair of the heart, inside a narrative framework based on recent and not-so-recent historical fact.

Harrison has produced an outstandingly readable book that delivers a clear account of the War, skilful assessment of its events, consequences and personalities, and valuable insights into the lives of those caught up in its mesh.

Memoir, travel writing, adoption studies, cultural studies, sociology, philosophy, essays, Sweden, South Korea.

What do you do when the world around you is in ruins?

She has an understanding of environmental chemistry, mathematics and meteorology – but when it comes to people…

The playfulness thinly veils a more serious message – the lack of status afforded to education and learning in modern society.

A collection of texts that offer possible solutions to apparently insurmountable problems.

The historical novel – often long, usually impressively researched – is very much alive.

‘The night before Ulla-Maj Holm, retired school director and former Member of the Finnish Parliament for the Swedish People’s Party in the constituency of Vaasa north, vanished without trace from the Norrvalla Rehab Centre, she dreamed about the first night of a play that never took place’.

The grass smells faintly of blood.

Thunander lets the people she meets speak for themselves – much of the text is directly quoted dialogue.

Sem-Sandberg is a masterly analyst who has chosen to present his observations in fiction rather than in historical works.

A modern-day, working-class Swedish Miss Marple.

This book will appeal to those looking for an unusual retelling of a world classic, this time by two children playing ‘Let’s Pretend’.