Shadow [Paperback]

Karin Alvtegen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2009

In a nondescript apartment block in Stockholm, most of the residents are elderly. Usually a death is a sad but straightforward event. But sometimes a resident will die and there are no friends or family to contact. This is when Marianne Folkesson arrives, employed by the state to close up a life with dignity and respect. Gerda Persson has lain dead in her apartment for three days before Marianne is called. When she arrives, she finds the apartment tidy and ordered. Gerda's life seems to have been quite ordinary. Until Marianne opens the freezer and finds it full of books, neatly stacked and wrapped in clingfilm, a thick layer of ice covering them. They are all by Axel Ragnerfeldt, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, with handwritten dedications to Gerda from the author. What story do these books have to tell, about Gerda, and more importantly about Ragnerfeldt, a man whose fame is without precedent in the nation's cultural life, but seldom gives interviews?

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Karin Alvtegen in brilliant shape ... I read without stopping and with mounting excitement to see how Karin Alvtegen will tie it all together in the end. As the pro she is, she manages to to do just that, and the story builds up towards its dramatic and entirely unexpected denouement ... Karin Alvtegen's new novel offers nearly four hundred pages of pure suspense.' Jonkopings-Posten

About the Author

Karin Alvtegen was born in Jonkoping, Sweden, in 1965 and had a varied career, including work in set design for film and stage, before she started to write. She won Sweden's most prestigious crime novel award, the Glass Key, in 2000 with her novel, Missing, and further acclaim with her next two novels, Betrayal and Shame. She is the great-neice of Astrid Lindgren (author of the Pippi Longstocking stories), and lives in Stockholm.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd (February 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847671705
• ISBN-13: 978-1847671707
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #704,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sex, lies and dysfunctional families, July 15, 2009

By 

Rachel (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadow (Paperback)

The cover blurb described this as a "psychological thriller" but I'm not sure that's entirely apt. In fact, this is the sort of novel that is hard to classify - there are thriller elements, but it's also part family saga and part melodrama.

The novel is set in Sweden, and the narrative switches between the present-day, the 1970s and 1940s-1950s. Kristoffer is abandoned as a four-year-old, and grows up remembering next to nothing of his biological parents. Axel Ragnerfeldt is a Nobel Prize winning author who has been permanently incapacitated by a stroke, and his son's job is basically to travel Europe on the speaking circuit promoting his father's work and ideals. How Kristoffer's and the Ragnerfelts' lives intersect is slowly revealed with each chapter, from varying perspectives, and the catalyst for bringing them together is a bequest to Kristoffer from a woman he has never met.

I'm not going to go into further detail at the risk of spoilers, and I freely admit that I am hopeless at decent plot summaries! This is a very dark novel, which explores the nature of deception and the far-reaching ramifications of one's actions. Most of the characters are thoroughly unlikeable, but are sufficiently well-drawn and distinct to enable the reader to have some sympathy for them at varying points.

I was certainly gripped and fascinated by this novel, which I finished within 24 hours, and which stuck with me for some time afterwards. Did I enjoy it? I'm not sure. It is almost unremittingly bleak, and there were really only one or two characters for whom I could see even a glimmer of hope. The writing is very clever; the most horrifying parts of the book are hinted at or described obliquely, but nonetheless in such a way as to give you a vivid mental image, which makes those moments even more chilling. However, it's one to read only if you're in the right frame of mind. "Shadow" is extremely well-written and interesting, but good grief, it's depressing.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning..., June 26, 2010

By 

LollyK - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shadow (Kindle Edition)

This was my first Kindle purchase, as it was recommended by a friend. SO glad I chose this as my first eBook. Beautifully written - a combination of the author and a very skilled translator, I imagine - and I absolutely couldn't put it down. Twist after compelling twist kept me reading. Recommend it highly.Shadow

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful writing and story - a bit dark however, February 2, 2010

By 

Hank (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shadow (Paperback)

If you haven't read Alvtegen but like authors who develop intense psychological suspense, like Ruth Rendell or Patricia Highsmith, then you would like this. Missing and Betrayal are also excellent novels, all quite different. The only hesitation I would have in recommending this is you need to like 'dark' stories, i.e. no happy endings here.