Hanna's Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson

It looks like I'm the first to finish - or at least the first to review Hanna's Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson.

It's the saga of three women - Hanna - who lives at the turn of last century in a remote town near Norway, Joanna - her daughter (who in the present is dying in a nursing home) and Anna the grand-daughter - who is piecing their stories together.

I didn't think I was going to like this book at all. The opening sequence of Anna stressing out about her mum in a nursing home left me cold. But the story of Hanna kept me turning the pages and then I wanted to finish it.

The cover reads as if Anna is finding out the history of her forebears but the text doesn't read like that and it spoils it a bit as you are constantly fighting against the logic of it all. After all it's not like she can ask her mother anything - she's not speaking - and Hanna is long gone... Once you let go of that logic it draws you in.

The writing is sparse. It's hard to tell if that's a function of the translation. I didn't mind it but it didn't feel warm or engaging. I just didn't feel the sympathy I felt I should have especially for Joanna or Anna. I connected with the story of Hanna until she moved to the city and then... she lost me.

Overall I felt it was an interesting book, but it left me a little cold. A bit like Scandinavia I suspect! Well, in winter anyway...

Your thoughts?