April Witch

Read in the summer of 2003. I remember because I sat on my porch, drinking coffee and reading... until the porch light had to come on and then I switched to wine. I almost finished this in a weekend! Desiree was abandoned at birth, a hideous child of disfigurement and riddled with birth defects (Cerebral Palsy). As she grows, Desiree becomes bitter to her 'three sisters' who she feels stole her life, as she was supposed to live it. The story is about Desiree and how even though she may not move, she may not speak...she follows the sisters everywhere, because she is an "April Witch", one of weak body but a mind so strong... To make amends for her life, Desiree plots the 3 sisters to interact despite their sheer hate of each other... and she includes her physician in the twist, Dr. Huberson. *this book was written in Sweden, and translated. -Wonderful translation This has easily become one of my favorite reads, so even though I read it 3 years ago, I had to post about it, as I have picked it up to read again!

This book is a great example of why we learn to read. It has beautiful writing, a unique story line, and social issues that really get your brain humming. As a mother of someone with severe CP but a bright mind, I found this book difficult to read at times but could not stay away. The storyline of the sisters and their dynamics is fascinating in its own right, even outside of the "main" storyline with the main character. I was engrossed in this book and could not anticipate how the author would resolve all of the threads into any sort of satisfying conclusion, yet unlike other reviewers that is exactly how I felt about the book's ending. ("Wow. She actually pulled it off!") Very highly recommended.

Majgull Axelsson's novel APRIL WITCH is a story told from a different angle -- the narrator is a woman who has lived with cerebral palsy and epilepsy for all of her life. Born in the 40s in Sweden, she was abandoned into state care by her birth mother -- who subsequently adopted three foster daughters. The narrator, Desiree, knows about her 'sisters' -- but they know nothing about her, even of her existence. Desiree is extremely intelligent and motivated -- facts that escape most of her care-givers for years -- and she is 'different' in another way as well: she is an 'April witch', with the ability to leave her crippled body and travel in the bodies of birds and animals (and even other people, although this choice is extremely physically taxing for her). As she moves through middle age and sees her own condition deteriorating, Desiree comes to the conclusion that her death is approaching. She has become increasingly obsessed with the idea that one of her 'sisters' has led the life that was 'meant' for her -- and she is determined to do everything she can to find out which one.The three 'sisters' -- a doctor, a physicist and a drug- and alcohol-abusing derelict -- cannot stand each other. As the book opens, Desiree 'sets her sisters in motion', bringing them not only together, but together around her, in order to answer the questions which have been burning within her for her entire life.The person who knows Desiree the best (and who cares for her very deeply) is her primary care physician, Dr. Hubertsson -- who also happens to be a former lodger at the home of her mother, 'Aunt Ella', as the other 'sisters' know her. He is the remaining link in the world that binds them all together -- and he becomes part of Desiree's plan as well. Over the course of this well-developed story, everyone involved -- Desiree included -- comes to learn a lot about themselves as well as the others.Axelsson's central character is an unusual but compelling one -- and it's refreshing to see a person with such an extreme disabity portrayed with such empathy and respect. This book, besides being very entertaining and intelligently written, can be a potential eye-opener for those who look upon people with disabilities with pity and disdain, as society's flotsam and jetsam. They -- like all of us -- deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

In post-war Sweden, three very different girls find a safe haven with foster-mother Ella. Christina and Birgitta were removed from abusive homes by social workers, and Margareta was abandoned at birth. Little do these girls know that there is a fourth member of their group-Desiree, Ella's severely disabled daughter. Desiree has been institutionalized since birth, suffering from cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Although she cannot speak or move, Desiree is an "April witch," someone with a weak body and a strong mind. She follows the lives of her three "sisters," whom she believes have stolen the life she was supposed to have.Ella gave up her only child to the care of Sweden's new Welfare State when told that Desiree was too severely afflicted to ever leave the hospital. She could not know that, with the help of a computer, her daughter would learn to communicate with others, earn a number of advanced degrees, or use her paranormal capabilities to follow Ella's life and her relationship with her foster daughters. Much of "April Witch" takes place after Ella's stroke when the girls are separated and go on to lead their own lives. Christina becomes a doctor, Margareta a physicist, and Birgitta a battered, drug-addicted alcoholic, but none of them know about Desiree, yet.We don't get to read many novels set in the Sweden of the `50's and 60's, and Linda Schenk's excellent translation makes you realize that there must a worthy collection of Swedish fiction we never get to see. "April Witch" is an intelligent, unusual, deeply felt story that should find an appreciative readership here in the U.S. My only quibble is that the April witch conceit is not fully played out, and actually isn't very necessary. Desiree is already linked to Ella and her sisters through real life-the doctor she loves was a boarder at Ella's house at the time of her stroke, Christina is a doctor in her facility, and Ella ends up on a respirator right down the hall from daughter. It's an interesting nuance to the story, but the tale of this family of women tossed together by chance is compelling enough without it.

Axelsson tells the stories of three sisters who all have their own burdens from their past. And of the fourth one, tied in bed forever but reaching her mind out into the lives of the other three, trying to understand something very essential to her. I liked the book and found it hard to pause before reaching the last pages.