Kept my interest. There's quite a layered plot. Very few characters come out of it with any credit and only the character that starts it off - Marianne Folkesson - seems to get any real satisfaction in her working life sorting out the funerals of people who have nobody to do it for them after their death. We don't learn anything about her private life so it's not possible to speculate there but without exception all the other characters have a pretty dismal working life and an absolutely miserable private life. While I guess the book demonstrates that misery begats misery both in private and public there seems to be something missing - surely there must be someone somewhere in Sweden that is happy and encountered at some point in the book. I fantasize about a neighbour who mends central heating for a living - and loves it, and maybe has sister that runs a wool shop - and loves it, and whose daughter is training to be a teacher - and loves it. And maybe all the happy people are just out of sight! ( )

Na het overlijden van de oude huishoudster van een Zweedse schrijver en Nobel-prijswinnaar leeft bij zijn familie de angst voor geheimen die mogelijk onthuld kunnen worden en die zijn reputatie kunnen schaden ( )

Well written and clever novel
Set in Sweden.
An old lady called Gerda dies she leaves everything in her will to a young man called Kristofer who was found abandoned when he was a young boy. His Mother couldn't cope with him her name was Halina.
She has no family but she was a House keeper for years to Axel Ragnerfedlt who is the most famous writer in Sweden. Axel is Kristofers father.
Axel is dying, his son Jan Erik main job is keeping his Fathers name alive, he doesn't want to share his inheritance with Kristofer and eventually kills him.
Really good book this. Will look out for more of Karin Alvtegen's novels. ( )

Kept my interest. There's quite a layered plot. Very few characters come out of it with any credit and only the character that starts it off - Marianne Folkesson - seems to get any real satisfaction in her working life sorting out the funerals of people who have nobody to do it for them after their death. We don't learn anything about her private life so it's not possible to speculate there but without exception all the other characters have a pretty dismal working life and an absolutely miserable private life. While I guess the book demonstrates that misery begats misery both in private and public there seems to be something missing - surely there must be someone somewhere in Sweden that is happy and encountered at some point in the book. I fantasize about a neighbour who mends central heating for a living - and loves it, and maybe has sister that runs a wool shop - and loves it, and whose daughter is training to be a teacher - and loves it. And maybe all the happy people are just out of sight! ( )

The book begins in 1975 when a four year old boy is discovered abandoned at an amusement park with a note asking for him to be looked after. Then the narrative jumps forward to the present day where a 92-year-old woman, Gerda Person, dies alone in her flat. She has no living relatives so Social Services administrator Marianne Folkesson is given the task of putting her affairs in order and organising the funeral.

Gerda Persson, turns out to be the former housekeeper of the highly respected Nobel Laureate Axel Ragnerfeldt and his family.

Axel Ragnerfeldt is now an old man and has suffered from a stroke and subsequently is unable to communicate except by moving his finger. Marianne therefore contacts Axel's son, Jan-Erik, who has made a living of giving talks and readings from his Father’s books. Marianne asks him to find a photograph of Gerda for the funeral and Jan-Erik begins to search his father’s old house. It is here that he uncovers a series of devastating family secrets that should have stayed hidden.

The author has written a compelling tale of the bleakness of humanity and the lengths that some will go to protect themselves and their reputation at whatever the cost. Alvtegen cunningly weaves layer upon layer of complicated and complex story threads told by the characters themselves. These stories twine and inter twine in a series of flashbacks and past histories that bring the all choices of the characters and the subsequent consequences together.

I really loved about this book is the fact that only the reader can see all the pieces

It is a slow burner but the final thrilling dénouements are relentless and left me feeling exhausted and rather shaken. At this point I remembered Halina’s fable and set to pondering on which one of the characters had committed the worst crime….I thought about it for days

A dark, dark read.
( )