'The Silver Road' is an addictive novel with a literary depth I did not expect from a thriller. It found the balance between character focus and action, which kept me both gripped and emotionally involved from beginning to end. This is a book for someone who doesn't usually read thrillers, and enjoys narration close to the character's emotions. However, the subject matter is dark, and the realism of the events should be known before picking up the book. This is not for someone looking for a light read, although it is certainly a quick one due to the pacing of events. ''There's something about death that gets under your skin and destroys you from the inside. Nobody warns you about it before you go. Nobody explains what happens to you once you've seen death first-hand, when you've stared it in the face. The way it kind of gets its claws into you. Becomes part of you.''
Lelle's seventeen year old daughter Lina went missing three years ago without a trace, and he has spent the time since searching desperately for her. In the northern Swedish summer it is light close to twenty four hours a day, and it is during these months that Lelle drives along the isolated Silver Road all night in search of his daughter, retreating to drink and sleep through winter. Meja and her mother Silje move to a nearby town to start a new life. She too is seventeen, and her life becomes intertwined with Lelle's and events past and present. Lelle's desperate search verges on paranoia, and suspicion is cast on various characters encountered through both Lelle and Meja's perspectives. The reader is kept in the dark about which, if any, of the characters know what happened to Lina, or was behind her disappearance, and this keeps the tension continuously high throughout. There are no chapters, simply part one which is set in the summer, and part two which is set in the autumn/winter. Instead of chapters there is a continuous flow of short sections alternating between Lelle and Meja. Each section is short – usually a single scene of two to four pages – and this helps the book to read faster. Each scene has action or intrigue, and it easy to say ‘just one more’. This quick switching of narration helps to sweep the two storylines along.
I was a little hesitant before starting this book. A teenage daughter goes missing, and this so easily could be a dark story with little or no light to lift it up. It is serious in nature, and upsetting to read at times. The characters are going through pure anguish, some of the worst things that can happen to a parent. You’d think that would make it not at all enjoyable to read, but the story is so gripping, the characters so convincing, the language so descriptive, beautiful and charged with emotion, that it kept me hooked from beginning to end. 'She also wanted to experience something that powerful, to believe in something so sincerely that it seeped from her pores and spread to everyone who came near her. It was obvious that Birger overflowed in the same way, that he was also drowning in his conviction. The artificial light threw gold on to his white hair and made her think of angels. The skin on his furrowed face was colourless and slack, but there was an other-worldly aura about him, something that affected her lungs and made it hard to breathe.'
I was immediately drawn in to Lelle’s voice, his desperation to find his daughter, his pain. His first sentence says so much about his character – his grief and hope even after three years. ‘It was the light, the way it stung and burned and tore at him, hung over the forests and the lakes like an incentive to go on breathing, like a promise of new life.’ I also felt very quickly like I knew Lina well, even though she is not present, through the thoughts Lelle has about her. His memories are vivid and though brief, these clues paint a strong picture. The split between summer and winter between the two sections works well for this novel, and the difference for Lelle is clear through his narration. His hope during the long days of summer which enables his night-time searches, in contrast to the winter when he is forced into reflection, with scenes of endless snow and darkness which lasts for most of the day. 'He tried to look beyond his own reflection in the glass. That was what he hated about the darkness, always being forced to see himself. The way everything was turned inwards.'
'The Silver Road' is translated from Swedish – I don’t know how it compares to the original version, but it reads beautifully and has some brilliant sentences. I wouldn't know that this is a translated version if the inside cover didn't say so.
If you enjoy books of a serious nature which are fast paced yet close to the thoughts and emotions of the characters, have stunning descriptions that place the reader in the heart of the scene, and are based around complicated characters and emotions, then this is a book you should consider.
Lelle's seventeen year old daughter Lina went missing three years ago without a trace, and he has spent the time since searching desperately for her. In the northern Swedish summer it is light close to twenty four hours a day, and it is during these months that Lelle drives along the isolated Silver Road all night in search of his daughter, retreating to drink and sleep through winter. Meja and her mother Silje move to a nearby town to start a new life. She too is seventeen, and her life becomes intertwined with Lelle's and events past and present. Lelle's desperate search verges on paranoia, and suspicion is cast on various characters encountered through both Lelle and Meja's perspectives. The reader is kept in the dark about which, if any, of the characters know what happened to Lina, or was behind her disappearance, and this keeps the tension continuously high throughout. There are no chapters, simply part one which is set in the summer, and part two which is set in the autumn/winter. Instead of chapters there is a continuous flow of short sections alternating between Lelle and Meja. Each section is short – usually a single scene of two to four pages – and this helps the book to read faster. Each scene has action or intrigue, and it easy to say ‘just one more’. This quick switching of narration helps to sweep the two storylines along.
I was a little hesitant before starting this book. A teenage daughter goes missing, and this so easily could be a dark story with little or no light to lift it up. It is serious in nature, and upsetting to read at times. The characters are going through pure anguish, some of the worst things that can happen to a parent. You’d think that would make it not at all enjoyable to read, but the story is so gripping, the characters so convincing, the language so descriptive, beautiful and charged with emotion, that it kept me hooked from beginning to end. 'She also wanted to experience something that powerful, to believe in something so sincerely that it seeped from her pores and spread to everyone who came near her. It was obvious that Birger overflowed in the same way, that he was also drowning in his conviction. The artificial light threw gold on to his white hair and made her think of angels. The skin on his furrowed face was colourless and slack, but there was an other-worldly aura about him, something that affected her lungs and made it hard to breathe.'
I was immediately drawn in to Lelle’s voice, his desperation to find his daughter, his pain. His first sentence says so much about his character – his grief and hope even after three years. ‘It was the light, the way it stung and burned and tore at him, hung over the forests and the lakes like an incentive to go on breathing, like a promise of new life.’ I also felt very quickly like I knew Lina well, even though she is not present, through the thoughts Lelle has about her. His memories are vivid and though brief, these clues paint a strong picture. The split between summer and winter between the two sections works well for this novel, and the difference for Lelle is clear through his narration. His hope during the long days of summer which enables his night-time searches, in contrast to the winter when he is forced into reflection, with scenes of endless snow and darkness which lasts for most of the day. 'He tried to look beyond his own reflection in the glass. That was what he hated about the darkness, always being forced to see himself. The way everything was turned inwards.'
'The Silver Road' is translated from Swedish – I don’t know how it compares to the original version, but it reads beautifully and has some brilliant sentences. I wouldn't know that this is a translated version if the inside cover didn't say so.
If you enjoy books of a serious nature which are fast paced yet close to the thoughts and emotions of the characters, have stunning descriptions that place the reader in the heart of the scene, and are based around complicated characters and emotions, then this is a book you should consider.