Hanna's Daughters: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

by Marianne Fredriksson (Author) "Anna realized she was being as demanding as a child..." (more)
Key Phrases: rune staff, earth cellar, kitchen sofa, John Broman, Nisse Nilsson, Erik Eriksson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A chronicle of emotional and psychological exploration, this family saga, a bestseller in Fredriksson's native Sweden and in Germany, is an unerringly perceptive portrait of women in the flux of Scandinavian history. In this English translation, however, it gets off to a slow start, hobbled by spare prose and often stiff dialogue. But once the characters acquire identity, the novel begins to reverberate in the reader's mind. Set against the backdrop of the 1870s Swedish-Norwegian Union crisis and WWII, the plot skillfully interweaves the stories of three generations of women. Born in 1871, grandmother Hanna Broman is a woman of "sense and continuity," but her life is blighted when she is raped and impregnated by a cousin at the age of 12. Marriage to miller John Broman restores her honor and produces three additional children: Johanna andAinterestingly, given the titleAtwo more sons. As she matures, atheist-socialist Johanna is contemptuous of her mother, whose life has been so deprived that she must learn about mirrors, indoor plumbing and electricity. Johanna's daughter, Anna, is a writer living in the concrete suburbs, hungering to understand her antecedents. Ultimately, Anna acknowledges that she cannot find "a way home" in her research about her family; instead, she discovers that everything about them is "full of contradictions." As a result, this is a book that benefits from two readings because its patterns often are built on characters with identical names or similar personalities, many events are captured in disconnected vignettes and chronologies jump and overlap. Yet the unsentimental depictions of women's inner lives, of the resentment and bitterness that undermine many family relationships and of the harsh truths that can never be spoken, create a portrait of the human need to connect and of the spiritual isolation that often occurs in the absence of such connection. Rights sold in 27 countries; simultaneous publication in fall 1998 in U.S., U.K., Australia, Greece, France, Poland, Iceland, Japan, Brazil, Israel, Korea, Czech Republic; film rights to Bavaria Film in Munich; major ad/promo.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
YA-This novel will make young people wonder about their own families. Shifting back and forth across time and generations, the story introduces three strong Swedish women: Hanna, her daughter Johanna, and Anna, her granddaughter. Born in 1871, Hanna was sent into service at a neighboring farm at age 12; there she was raped by her employer's son. She bore her first child at 13, and was shunned by the whole community. However, the local midwife found her a husband, an older man from a neighboring province, and the couple grew to care for one another and lived comfortably. Their last child was Johanna. She and her mother were always at odds, but she and her father were very close. After his death when Johanna was eight, Hanna moved her four children to the city, where Johanna spent much of her time with her sister-in-law, who eventually gave her work in her hat shop. She had a stormy marriage, and one child that survived, Anna. Her story also reveals a troubled marriage. Anna, the educated one, the writer, tells the story of her mother and grandmother and their relationships with men and with their children. Then she begins to tell her own story. YAs will identify with the mother-daughter relationships portrayed here; time, place, and history may vary, but love, jealousy, passion, kindness, and friendship remain the same.
Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; Later Printing edition (August 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345433491
• ISBN-13: 978-0345433497
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #282,051 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hey Stinky, January 13, 2001

By	Stephanie Svanfeldt (Marin County, CA. USA) - See all my reviews

Funny how true the saying "Like mother like daughter" comes to life in this emotional and inspiring novel, Hanna's Daughters, by Marianne Fredriksson. Three generations of women are portrayed through family lives and a changing society. It is fascinating how the grandmother's lifestyle differed from the grandaughter's although still sharing a common thread. Love and loss, becoming strong though sacrifices, yielding to men and the hardships of running a household are constant themes.

The novel also focused on the many complexities facing the families. A few examples are abusive and alcoholic fathers and husbands and unfaithful fathers and husbands. I was impressed with the way the author structured the sequencing of stories around each of the women. She used past letters, dreams, and flashbacks to compare and to contrast the duaghter's lives. One that I enjoyed was about Broman and his love for his daughter, Johanna. I was able to parallel it back to Johanna's dream about going to the cave when she was a child. She was not cold because she was able to cuddle with her father. Such connections in the book made me eager to read on to uncover others.

Throughout the course of the book similarities between the women's lives began to appear. Hanna's mother, Hanna, Johanna, and her daughter Anna had the emotional bond of child loss. They experienced the heartbreak of children dying in famine, of suicide, abortion and infant death. Another commonality was the struggle of Hanna and Anna as single mothers after the divorce or death of their husbands.

Hanna's Daughters was an incredibly moving portrayal of the relationship between mothers and daughters, their love bond and the hardship that goes along with this love. There are the emotions of guilt and heartache that go hand in hand, even in a sometimes twisted and difficult bond that exists between mothers and daughters. Along with these heart wrenching experiences the author demonstrates how fulfilling a relationship between a mother and daughter can be.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Women's saga, May 21, 2001

By	Sharon Knutson "chinamomma" (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hanna's Daughters is a tale spanning three generation's of a Swedish family. It is told by Anna, who in a last ditch effort to understand her mother, gathers letter, diaries, and journals to read about her mother and grandmother's life.

The story is told through a series of flashbacks with can be disconcerting until you catch the rhythm of the story. The life of the three women revolves around mother-daughter relationships and the path our lives take as a result of the decisions we make.

Each woman struggles with similar heartbreaks (although they don't always know what the other one is/has gone through) They struggle with marriage, children, death, and finding ones self worth in a sometimes harsh world.

While I enjoyed the story (possibly due to my Swedish heritage!) I still felt the story plodded in some sections so I only gave it a three star rating.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A touching story about a woman's life without being kitsch, August 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Hanna's Daughters (Hardcover)

This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for quite a time - I never had time to read, but one nicht I grabbed it and could not stop reading. For a few days and nights I lived with Hanna, Anna, and Johanna - all three of them remarkable women in their times. It is very much a "women's book", I cannot picture men liking it that much, because they don't know (and they CAN'T) anything about the sometimes difficult relationships between mothers and daughters. This book even taught me a lesson: talk to each other as long as there is time, don't put it off. It's a wonderful book that makes you laugh and cry! withought being KITSCH.