The Invisible [Hardcover]

Mats Wahl (Author), Katarina Tucker (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 23, 2007

One ordinary Monday morning in May, Hilmer Eriksson walks into his high school classroom and discovers that he has become invisible. No one can see him, no one can hear him. In fact, a police detective named Harald Fors arrives at school that very morning to investigate Hilmer's disappearance. The boy has no idea what's going on, but he's frightened, and he's starting to forget things - including what happened to him a few nights earlier. Detective Fors suspects foul play, and those suspicions lead him - trailed by the ghostlike presence of Hilmer - to a group of skinheads. These unpopular, disaffected kids are very vocal about their Nazi sympathies. But how does Hilmer's life intersect with theirs? As Fors scours the village and interviews area residents for clues, he begins to piece together the puzzle of Hilmer's disappearance. Meanwhile Hilmer waits, silently, to discover what has happened to him.
 
In this riveting mystery set in northern Sweden, Mats Wahl deftly alternates between the policeman's and the victim's points of view, as the story of a missing-persons case shifts with a sad inevitability into a heartbreaking murder investigation.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—A small town in Sweden becomes embroiled in a mystery when one of its own becomes a missing person. One day Hilmer Eriksson walks into his high school classroom and finds that he has become invisible. He is a quiet young man who likes chess and has a steady girlfriend. The teen wonders why no one can see him and begins to realize that something terrible has happened. Hilmer learns that he is missing, but is confused because he can see what is going on around him. Soon he realizes that he is invisible to the outside world. Detective Harald Fors arrives to investigate his disappearance, and the teen remains by his side. After conducting several interviews, Fors suspects that a group of skinheads is involved: the teen had earned their wrath by trying to protect one of its victims—a fellow student who is an immigrant. Even after Hilmer is found hidden away in a compost heap, badly beaten and barely alive, his ghostly presence continues to follow the characters, until his body dies and his strength runs out. The story is intriguing at first, but once Fors gets on the trail of the skinheads, the book becomes predictable. Much of the story line centers around Hilmer's reaching out for help and no one responding because of his invisibility. However, as the plot picks up speed, the interludes describing his thoughts are dropped haphazardly into the chapters without cohesiveness. Give teens Carol Plum-Ucci's The Body of Christopher Creed (Harcourt, 2000) instead.—Shannon Seglin, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This taut police procedural, full of foreshadowing and suspense, opens as Hilmer, a 15-year-old boy in a small Swedish town, realizes that he has become invisible and is believed missing. The focus soon shifts to Fors, a policeman brought in to investigate the case. Invisible Hilmer follows along. During the next two days, interviews with Hilmer's girlfriend, mother, classmates, and others reveal the missing boy's quiet integrity, and Fors learns that teenage neo-Nazis, abetted by prejudice among adults, may hold the key to the disappearance. Hilmer's angst and confusion contrasts with Fors' dogged pursuit of clues to the boy's fate. Wahl's skillful, understated prose explores the dark side of modern society, and readers come to understand that the book is less a mystery than a human tragedy. The book was published first in Sweden, where it was made into a movie; a U.S. film version will open in April 2007. Kathleen Odean
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 186 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (January 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374336091
• ISBN-13: 978-0374336097
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #681,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, May 19, 2007

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Invisible (Hardcover)

Hilmer walked into school on Monday morning like normal, but quickly discovers that this isn't going to be a normal day.

No one can see him. No one can hear him. Hilmer is invisible. Being invisible is a big enough problem on its own, but what makes it worse for Hilmer is the fact that he has no idea why he is invisible.

It doesn't take long for Hilmer to find out that everyone thinks he has disappeared and that many people suspect foul play.

Detective For is in charge of Hilmer's disappearance case. Hilmer decides if he stays close to him, he'll find out what happened and where his body is. Detective For hits many obstacles while trying to figure out what happened on the last day Hilmer was seen. Several local officials encourage Detective For to consider Hilmer a runaway and to not look too deeply into the mystery because it might look bad for the community. The community leaders are hoping the town will become a tourist/vacation spot. Turning up anything negative will bring in the press and possibly turn potential visitors away.

Getting anyone to talk about what is going on in the school is difficult. Detective For can clearly see that Hilmer's locker has been recently painted in order to cover up graffiti. The word "Traitor" is scrawled on top of the new paint job, giving the detective a place to start. He finds out that there have been altercations between many of the locals and the immigrants moving in from other countries. After questioning students and teachers, Detective For learns that Hilmer defended one of the immigrants shortly before his disappearance.

Issues of prejudice, white power, immigration, and hatred surface during the investigation. Can Detective For put together all the clues in time to help Hilmer become visible again?

THE INVISIBLE by Mats Wahl is now a major motion picture; however, after reading a synopsis of the movie, so much has been changed that it doesn't resemble the premise of the book. It would be fair to say that the movie is LOOSELY based on the book of the same name.

Reviewed by: Karin Perry

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Story but the Invisible Factor Plays No Part in the Plot, June 22, 2007

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Invisible (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book but the factor that attracted this story to me in the first place (an invisible kid who can't communicate with the world but finds out there's a police search for him) didn't play much of a part in this story. Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed this short story length read, but I feel many people may purchase this novel and feel slightly cheated being that other than for marketing the book, Hilmer being in the story as an invisible entity is pointless as he does not alter the investigation, interact with anyone or have any purpose for the plot, in fact there's very few paragraphs he even appears in at all. The story would have flowed smoothly, in fact smoother without him as his being in the present as an invisible one only lets the reader know for sure something bad has happened to his real self and he's not just a runaway as a lot of the townfolk want the detective to believe. Still lets be honest not many of those of us who read the book probably would have done so without this clever or unethical marketing twist but the reputation of the author may well suffer for future work due to this.

The Invisible is an enjoyable read though, complete with a main character Detective Herald Fors who like any real cop does has his flaws. His frustrations at the incompetent and selfish small town residents who prefer to brush a problem under the carpet rather than find a missing boy so their tourism marketing campaign to the Germans isn't messed up is brilliant reading. Tackling bigotry and hatred but explaining why the main bigot actually developed this rationale was also very well done. I would highly recommend this book and read more novels by this Swedish writer but I think they took a big risk with the minimal invisible non essential plot factor which may put a lot of readers after that sort of thing off side.

Read the book, it's good!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superbly crafted mystery, April 14, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Invisible (Hardcover)

Just how do you go about solving a murder - especially when the victim is supposed to be you? When Hilmer walked into his high school and what seems like a perfectly ordinary day, he finds that he's somehow turned invisible to everyone around him! A police detective arrives at school to investigate a teen's disappearance and in the course of his investigation, turns up undercurrents of bigotry and violence. Hilmer can't remember what happened to him, he can only follow the detective as clues are uncovered - and time is of the essence if what began as a missing-persons case turns into a murder investigation. An especially recommended addition to both school and community library fiction collections, "The Invisible" is a superbly crafted mystery that will leave young readers raptly engaged in the unfolding and deftly crafted story.