Lisa Ridz\u00e9n\u2019s debut, which has been a runaway success in her\u00a0Swedish homeland and elsewhere, demonstrates how sometimes the simplest storytelling can be the most effective. This is a novel with no clever\u00a0structural devices or burden of\u00a0symbolism and a setting so limited geographically that the reader ends up knowing precisely where everything is.<\/p>\n
It is narrated by Bo, a former timbermill worker who has reached the age when people worry about him, and has a network of carers calling in three times a day. One of Ridz\u00e9n\u2019s inspirations was the team journal kept by the carers looking after her dying grandfather; very movingly, bulletins from the journal of Bo\u2019s carers punctuate his narrative, the alternative perspective like a chill breeze through a briefly opened door.<\/p>\n
Bo lives in the Swedish far north, surrounded by the sort of woods, lakes and meadows that are a paradise for dogs but a constant worry for the adult children of old men who persist in living somewhere so remote. His adored wife, Frederika, no longer knows who he is and has been taken away to a dementia care home, imposing on Bo a kind of living bereavement. His one close friend, Ture, a man local gossips have down as\u00a0a \u201cconfirmed bachelor\u201d, has also reached the stage of being cared for around the clock, but the two old men enjoy regular catch-ups on their geriatric-friendly mobiles. His other great love is a dog, Sixten, an elkhound who needs far more exercise than Bo\u00a0can now possibly give him, but is a constant presence at his side or on his bed. Bo also has a\u00a0fiftysomething son called Hans, a divorced conservative and worrier, and\u00a0a\u00a0student granddaughter, Ellinor.<\/p>\n
The plot, such as it is, involves Bo\u00a0becoming ever frailer and Hans threatening to have Sixten rehomed, now that walking a dog in rugged terrain has become too perilous for a man prone to falling over. However, almost from\u00a0the first page, Bo\u2019s first-person, present-tense narrative is\u00a0enriched by repeated dreamlike digressions. These take us out of the grim present realities of adult nappies, phlegm cups and frozen ready meals into\u00a0stories of a country boyhood overshadowed by a cruel and brutal father, the happy marriage into which young Bo escaped, the adorable little boy Hans was before he somehow turned into an overweight, fretful bully, and Bo\u2019s long friendship and regular fishing trips with the ambiguous Ture.<\/p>\n
Bo faces the challenge of overcoming his masculine conditioning so as not to die with love unexpressed<\/p>\n
Bo is haunted by a peculiarly male anger \u2013 the scarring, remembered rages of his father and his own bursts of rage at his increasing lack of independence that somehow stops him telling Hans what he really feels. As Bo\u2019s end draws near, he faces the twin challenges of keeping his beloved Sixten at his side and overcoming his masculine conditioning so as not to die with love\u00a0unexpressed.<\/p>\n
Another element, hinted at in the title, is the steady parade of seasonal changes all about his little house, as the year moves from the glories of May, through the pale nights of midsummer, to golden autumn and the arrival of bitter cold. The sense of\u00a0place is conjured deftly \u2013 Ridz\u00e9n is describing the landscape on her doorstep near \u00d6stersund \u2013 but just as evocative are the many mentions of\u00a0Swedish food, from the tinned fishballs and microwaved stew served by the carers, which are evidently inferior to the fiskbullar and lingonberry-enhanced roasts once made by Frederika, to the superior almond tarts, or mazariner, served by Ture, all of which had me googling recipes to try at home.<\/p>\n
At a couple of slightly awkward points, translator Alice Menzies has the characters talk a northern English, presumably as an equivalent for northern Swedish dialect, but there was really no need. Anyone anywhere who has worried for a crumbling parent, or worried about the crumble in themselves, or simply worried that their dog understood them better than their family, will identify with Ridz\u00e9n\u2019s novel and take it to heart.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Patrick Gale\u2019s latest novel is Notes from an Exhibition (Tinder). When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridz\u00e9n, translated by Alice Menzies, is published by Doubleday, \u00a314.99. To support the Guardian buy a copy at guardianbookshop.com<\/a>. Delivery charges may apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisa Ridz\u00e9n\u2019s debut, which has been a runaway success in her\u00a0Swedish homeland and elsewhere, demonstrates how sometimes the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-33779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}