Sara Stridsberg: Kärlekens Antarktis (Antarctica of Love)

The latest addition to my website is Sara Stridsberg‘s . This is one of those novels where the narrator is dead. Kristine, drug addict and prostitute, but also mother, sister and daughter, struggles with her life – both parents are drunks and her adored younger brother drowns when he was seven. Her only escape is heroin and when she is joined by Shane, father of her two children, things do not improve. They give up their daughter after her birth and their son is taken away and fostered. When the murderer finally comes, she is almost expecting him and not too sad about dying. She tells the story of her life but also watches her children, her parents and the murderer for quite a long while after her death. It is a very sad tale – no-one is happy – but superbly told.