Astrid and Veronika

Astrid & Veronika reads like an adult fable that is stashed away in a hope chest; only taken out after the children are put to bed, or with a sip of tea at sunrise before the rest of the house awakes; there are tears mending into blankets and the whisper of a lifetime that has moved over a lost Brahms score. The lyrical quality of the writing climbs into a secret part of the heart and rises with the sun; beckoning to the reader to follow the two women down to the sea for a swim. Astrid's life seems to hold all the world's pain and when she pours her heart into Veronika's lap, there comes a wincing at the passage of a babies life, Astrid seems to have been punished for her very existence; her only joy, the warmth of her mother's smile just before she killed herself; a lifetime spent in solitude will drain the soul of all its water, and leave the heart perpetually thirsty; the poetry that is interwoven within the start of each chapter la bella ~ and in between Veronika hums her own hymnal lifesong: allegro ~ how the reader aches for something grand and lovely to at least throw strong and sturdy arms around one of these women; one wishes love to last; and then the realization that they are saving each other; spreads over the novel like an all too late arrival at the dinner party after the candles are flickering and the strawberry wine is on its last lisp; I could read this book on a perpetual schedule for when life gets far too heavy to hold up, for when there is a search party for understanding meaning and for falling off the neatly mowed pathway and meandering over toward the grassy knoll wildflowers in between. To say too much would be to threaten a clamoring in this eloquent novel; words mending over sea and music shores await, come and dive in, each chapter is a series of long strokes toward the island where tragedy sits on the shore with contentment and miraculously they agree to hold hands, while above a grey owl circles.

The plot of this lovely novel can be summarized in a few words. Over the course of nine months, on the outskirts of a Swedish village, two lonely damaged women become friends and restore one another to life. The two are fifty years apart in age. Veronika, a novelist around 30, returns to her native Sweden from New Zealand, where she has suffered a great loss. Astrid, immured in the old house next to hers on the hill, is an 80-year-old recluse, commonly referred to as the village witch. Their personal stories will gradually emerge through flashbacks, but most of their interaction with each other takes place in the simplest possible ways: walks in the woods or by the river, cooking and eating local food, listening to music. It is a similar rural simplicity to what makes Per Petterson's OUT STEALING HORSES so effective; simpler still, this might almost be its feminine counterpart. Linda Olsson's second novel, SONATA FOR MIRIAM, is about a composer, and it is clear that music plays a special part in her life. Two pieces that Veronika plays on CD at pivotal moments are worth seeking out and hearing, both for their own sake and for the way they share the spirit of the book: the slow movement of the Brahms Violin Sonata in d minor, and Swedish composer Lars Erik Larsson's choral symphony Förklädd Gud (God in Disguise). Olsson is also sensitive to poetry, and prefaces each chapter by a short quotation from mostly Swedish poets in her own translation. I am not sure that these fully work, because none of the quotations are long enough to establish context, and some come over as sentimental rather than meaningful. But Linda Olsson is very much the poet in her own writing. There is nothing overcharged about her prose style, nothing that demands to be singled out as a luscious quote. But there is something more important: a seamless exchange between present and past, action and memory, description and imagery. She has us enter not only the bodies of these women, but also their minds. ASTRID AND VERONIKA is a book that, in its striking truth and gentle understatement, can only be written once. SONATA FOR MIRIAM would require more plot, greater complexity of structure. One of the characters in that later book says: "Simplicity is underrated. It is possible to consciously create the complex, the contrived, but it is impossible to manufacture simplicity." Perhaps it will take Olsson a novel or two more to find the ideal balance, but it is the achievement of ASTRID AND VERONIKA that gives her the right to preach simplicity.

If you are only going to read one book this summer, this should be it. It will blow you away!! It captures your imagination from the first paragraph, and continues to take you deeper into the story of these two characters. It is the best book I have read in a long time! Hope Linda Olsson continues to write!

This book was recommended to me by a friend who happens to be Swedish. It is a subtle, gentle and surprising book with a slow yet compelling pace. It was a breath of fresh air, and I was able to read it on one sitting!

Having seen a review of this book in the New York Times, I could not resist purchasing this book by an author whom I did not know because the brief story line offered and the cover, showing the hands full of wild stawberries, drew me on. From the first words, inviting me into the world of Astrid and Veronika, I knew there was a splendid, most beautiful truth about to be told in these two lives. Friendship in its most selfless state and expression is the truth told in words that flow and touch as poetry. I hope this work brings much pleasure and resonance to men and women in all cultures. The Rev. Marie Z. Swayze +