Reviews

Kristina Sandberg’s monumental trilogy about Maj Berglund, a housewife from the small town of Örnsköldsvik, is a tour de force.

Kristina Sandberg’s monumental trilogy about Maj Berglund, a housewife from the small town of Örnsköldsvik, is a tour de force.

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

Beckomberga Hospital was once Europe’s largest mental institution.

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

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

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

‘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’.

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.

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

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

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.

The grass smells faintly of blood.

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

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

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

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.

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