Six Brilliant Reads: Scandinavian Fiction

Not all Nordic fiction is about murder. We look at six recent novels from Scandinavian countries that are terrific for a whole bunch of reasons but are light on crime and police activity. See what you think.

When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzen will put a lump in your throat as you read about eighty-nine-year-old Bo, living on his own since his wife went into care, with only his dog Sixten for company. His son Hans feels Sixten would be better living with a family that can give him the exercise he needs. The two lock horns, while caregivers come and go, tirelessly looking after the old man, who can do little but look back on his life - his childhood, marriage and his friendship with best mate, Ture. This is a lovely debut novel about life and love, family relationships and making peace.

A new book by Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove; Anxious People) is always something to cheer about. My Friends follows aspiring artist Louisa who is fascinated by a painting. In a tiny corner of the picture, three figures sit on the end of a pier, a secret hidden in plain sight. This is a story about four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life decades later. The book promises a funny, deeply moving story about how happy endings aren’t always where you expect them.

With The Night of the Scourge, Lars Mytting completes his epic historical Sister Bells trilogy. Although best read in order, this novel (which follows The Bell in the Lake and The Reindeer Hunters) takes the reader to the small Norwegian town of Butangen, the home of the Hekne family and beleaguered priest Kai Schweigaard. The trilogy takes us from 1880 when Kai first arrives in the town. Battling superstition, he replaces the ancient stave chapel with a new church, while Astrid Hekne snares his heart. In Book Two, we’re in the years around WW1 with two young men, one Norwegian and one Scottish, who don’t know they’re brothers. The third book describes a new war and the discord in the community brought on by the German occupation. Love, loss, betrayal, faith, nationalism – it’s all here in this sweeping historical saga.

A lighter story is The Prophet and the Idiot by Jonas Jonasson, which brings together three unlikely characters: Petra, a self-taught astrophysicist who has calculated that the world will end on the 21^st of September; Johan, a doomsday prophet; and Agnes, an elderly widow who leads a lucrative double life on social media pretending to be a young influencer. The three team up to make the most of what time they have left on a road trip which takes them all around Europe. Not everything turns out as they had anticipated in this humorous story.

The Divorce by Swedish author Moa Herngren is a brilliant book club read about Bea and Niklas, a couple who have been together for over thirty years. A trivial argument sees Niklas disappear. It seems he’s found someone else and shocks Bea by insisting on a divorce. The novel looks back to the couple’s early beginnings as childhood friends through to Bea’s struggle and rage over the divorce. And then we see Niklas’s perspective, the building resentments, the gender biases. The author captures the Stockholm and Gotland settings really well too.

Back in Norway, Marie Aubert’s novella, Grown Ups is a sharp, savvy story about Ida, who is a forty-year-old architect taking a good look at her future. With no partner, she is thinking about freezing her eggs. But there’s a family holiday to get through in in the idyllic Norwegian countryside. Here Ida is at odds with her sister, flirting with her brother-in-law and winning over her sister’s stepdaughter. Things build to a devastating clash between Ida and her family. Aubert packs a lot into a short book – a brilliant quick read about what it takes to finally grow up.

Posted by JAM

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