Book news, reviews and recommendations
Perhaps because I’m in one, I’m attracted to fiction about long relationships which are as different from each other as the couples involved. I included a post in my Five Books I’ve Read series and could probably write several more on the theme. Acclaimed Swedish writer Moa Herngren’s The Divorce explores the end of a […]
The Divorce by Moa Herngren (transl. Alice Menzies): Two sides of the story Read More »
The blurb for Alex Schulman’s Malma Station was so impenetrable I’d have passed it by had I not been so impressed by The Survivors back in 2021. Schulman’s new novel explores similar themes following three journeys to the eponymous station deep in the Swedish countryside, separated by several decades. Often, when her parents fought, she
Malma Station by Alex Schulman (transl. Rachel Willson-Broyles) ‘You are never alone’ Read More »
The blurb for Ia Genberg’s The Details begins with the premise of a woman confined to bed by a mild fever, putting me a little in mind of Julia Blackburn’s The Leper’s Companions which I loved when I read it years ago. Genberg’s novel is nothing like Blackburn’s but I was very pleased it snagged
The Details by Ia Genberg (transl. Kira Josefsson): Less is more Read More »
Given how much of my viewing time has been spent there thanks to Walter Presents, you’d think I’d have read more Scandinavian fiction but perhaps it’s because so much of the translated variety is crime related. Below are five striking Swedish novels I’ve read, all with links to my reviews, beginning with an award-winning piece
Five Swedish Novels I’ve Read Read More »
The blurb for Swedish writer Johanna Hedman’s The Trio put me in mind a little of Liza Klaussmann’s slightly disappointing This is Gonna End in Tears which I reviewed last week. Both feature a group of close friends revisited later in life, which is what attracted me, but that’s where the similarity ends. As you’ll
The Trio by Johanna Hedman (transl. Kira Josefsson): If you like Sally Rooney… Read More »
It was its Swedish setting that attracted me to Alex Schulman’s The Survivors which came my way at a time when I was remembering holidays past, including one taken on the Gothenburg archipelago many years ago. It’s about a family who holiday every year at the same isolated lakeside cottage until, one summer, a dramatic
Two things drew me to Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s The Family Clause: I’d enjoyed his previous novel, Everything I Don’t Remember, back in 2016, and the blurb sounded tempting with its promise of chaotic and discordant family life. I’d been expecting a fairly straightforward linear narrative but that’s not Khemiri’s style. This everyday tale of a
The Family Clause by Jonas Hassen Khemiri (transl. Alison Menzies): What Larkin said Read More »