Protagonist Lelle lives a tormented life. Three years ago his teenage daughter went missing, he spends every summer driving the Silver Road, making use of the midnight sun and lack of snow cover, checking every possible location that an abductor could have used, while smoking a raft of cigarettes.
This is good book about the shattered lives of the parents and friends who remain. The wife of Lelle withdrew into depression and found another man. Meanwhile Lelle’s depression took the more interesting route of anger, he never stopped searching for his daughter, which ultimately caused his wife to leave. He also crosses many social barriers, upsetting neighbours in his pursuit of his ever distant daughter, at times this you really feel he is right, at others it feels awkward and you wish somebody could help him out. The strange way a mind can operate when faced with desolation is perfectly captured in this hard hitting novel. The author did their research on this one, it’s an authentic piece that represents the struggle and anguish of the loss of a loved one.
This book follows dual characters along the timeline. The second to emerge is a teenage female (Meja) who is of a similar age to Lelle’s daughter when she went missing. Meja has a ramshackle life, her addict and mentally ill mother bringing constant disruption to her life. Her mother moving them to the remote North of Sweden, to a remote rundown house off the notorious Silver Road, to live with a reclusive older man.
The two characters are excellently written, it becomes a little trite when their paths cross though, I think there could have been a better more believable mechanism for their meeting. But when they do, the contrasts between their torn lives really stands out and the author retains an element of suspense about how their lives will change because of their meeting.
The ending was wrapped up a bit too quickly and this rush created a fault in the grande finale that made it hard to believe. There should have been more character development which would have made the behaviour more believable. But this did not reflect too negatively as this book has been about plumbing the depths of tortured souls, it’s much more than a beginning, middle and ending. I highly recommend this book, it has been a hugely engrossing read.
This is good book about the shattered lives of the parents and friends who remain. The wife of Lelle withdrew into depression and found another man. Meanwhile Lelle’s depression took the more interesting route of anger, he never stopped searching for his daughter, which ultimately caused his wife to leave. He also crosses many social barriers, upsetting neighbours in his pursuit of his ever distant daughter, at times this you really feel he is right, at others it feels awkward and you wish somebody could help him out. The strange way a mind can operate when faced with desolation is perfectly captured in this hard hitting novel. The author did their research on this one, it’s an authentic piece that represents the struggle and anguish of the loss of a loved one.
This book follows dual characters along the timeline. The second to emerge is a teenage female (Meja) who is of a similar age to Lelle’s daughter when she went missing. Meja has a ramshackle life, her addict and mentally ill mother bringing constant disruption to her life. Her mother moving them to the remote North of Sweden, to a remote rundown house off the notorious Silver Road, to live with a reclusive older man.
The two characters are excellently written, it becomes a little trite when their paths cross though, I think there could have been a better more believable mechanism for their meeting. But when they do, the contrasts between their torn lives really stands out and the author retains an element of suspense about how their lives will change because of their meeting.
The ending was wrapped up a bit too quickly and this rush created a fault in the grande finale that made it hard to believe. There should have been more character development which would have made the behaviour more believable. But this did not reflect too negatively as this book has been about plumbing the depths of tortured souls, it’s much more than a beginning, middle and ending. I highly recommend this book, it has been a hugely engrossing read.