In the long run,it was impossible to hide the fact that Cecilia had one day decided to leave her children and her husband,to take off and never come back. Martin Berg is slowly falling into crisis. Decades ago,he was an aspiring writer who'd almost finished his novel,his girlfriend was the wildly intelligent and beautiful Cecilia Wickner,and his best friend was the up-and-coming artist Gustav Becker. But Martin's manuscript has long been languishing in a desk drawer,Gustav has stopped answering his calls,and Cecilia has been missing for years - ever since she vanished from his life,leaving him to raise their two young children alone. So who was Cecilia Martin's eccentric wife,Gustav's enigmatic muse,an absent mother - a woman who was perhaps only true to herself. When Martin's daughter Rakel stumbles across a clue about what happened to her mother,she becomes determined to fill in the gaps in her family's story. But she can't escape the simple question at the heart of it all: How can anyone leave someone they love
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Pushkin PressISBN: 9781782277989Dimensions: 234 x 153 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Meet Sweden's Sally Rooney...a love-triangle,arty chit-chat,and lots of snow and sex...Sandgren strikes a nice balance between comedy and coming of age...A lovely atmosphere to lose yourself in...Gorgeous and heightened and full of glittering,icy peopleA wry bestseller that reads like the effortlessly chic European cousin of Fleishman is in Trouble...Sandgren has a sly eye for comedy...Part bildungsroman,part psychological mystery and part family saga...embraces the mess,misunderstandings and inscrutabilities that constitute peoples real people living real lives...A novel to savourUtterly gripping... like the films of Richard Linklater transmuted to the page... a magnificent doorstop of a novelA startlingly impressive debut from Swedish writer Lydia Sandgren,with the sort of range and depth of an on-form Jonathan Franzen or Donna Tartt novelA witty,toothy,family saga... a confidently ambitious work that holds art,literature and philosophy close to its heart... an assured,bittersweet novel that,like youth,seems to have it allA wide-ranging exploration of family and friends,art and ambition that more than lives up to the hypePoised at the intersection of life and art,reality and imagination,this novel blends the thrill of mystery with the curiosity and depth of philosophical inquiryEminently readable and engrossingA remarkable,addictive and quietly subversive work that... will have you demanding even more time with its charactersA real knickerbocker glory of a novel: funny,philosophical,poignant,humane and beautifully written. It also manages to out-Franzen Jonathan Franzen and is addictive as any box-set. Those 700+ pages They simply flew by(An) epic literary novel... ambitious,assured... one of the most meticulously built works of fiction I've read in a long time... Will Collected Works help to restore the literary tradition of the long novel Very possibly.An addictive read,which reveals,teases and conceals superbly,and which,like all the best big books,leaves the finishing reader bereftUnfolding over more than 700 beautifully written pages,this is a slow-burn,intriguing debut,shot through with gentle wit,clear-eyed perception and enough booze to give you a hangoverThrilling,brilliant and immense in the best possible way. Sandgren is a master storyteller,and I feel utterly bereft to have left the world of her absorbing characters. In a time of grim insularity,this is an uncompromisingly European novel,teeming with ideas and digressions on literature,art,history and love.Compelling,tense and moving - I loved this smart and subtle exploration of modern motherhood and womanhood(A) sweeping and complex drama of family,art,and sacrifice...Readers will be captivatedA richly evocative work from a major new talentSandgren hooks the reader with an absorbing,multilayered plot that shifts between past and present,building slowly towards the emotional and narrative mystery at its heartThis is a big,compelling family drama that's also a mystery,and also a treatise on art and artmaking and friendship and getting older,and it will suck you in and refuse to let goThe most convincing work of literary fiction I've read in years: one part family saga,one part buddy comedy,one part mystery,one part bildungsroman,and one part philosophical inquiry into the nature of art,the whole filled with unforgettable characters,wry humor,and knock-down gorgeous sentences,positively vibrating with intelligence and style. People often write,with varying degrees of accuracy,that new books feel destined to become classics,but Collected Works feels like it already is one-and you,lucky reader,have stumbled upon itThe mystery at the heart of the story adds urgency to this warm,engaging,and funny novel about the inebriation of youth and the sobriety of middle age; about lives shaped by art and ideas; about our human flaws and joys. Collected Works is a thoroughly enjoyable bookThe hottest debut of the year! If Klas stergren and Donna Tartt had had a love child,who grew up in Gothenburg and became an author,well,there you have Lydia SandgrenA masterpiece,just as bold as any Donna Tartt novel,but at the same time calm and precise... Everything is captured. Tender,and terribly convincingLydia Sandgren has written this year's most talked about - perhaps the millennium's most talked about - debutNeat as in a perfectly composed pop song - catchy,bombastic,irresistable...What's left to say,therefore,is just that we hope that it doesn't take another ten years for Sandgren to write her next bookLydia Sandgren is a debut author,but she writes this novel as if she's done nothing else for decadesIt makes me ecstatic that literature can be this too: a doorstopper of narrative joy,cultivation and linguistic delightAn exceptional debut... Collected Works demonstrates the richness and power of literatureIn Lydia Sandgren's in many ways magnificent novel,the surroundings are vividly and lucidly portrayed... Collected Works is a serious and touching,and at the same time entertaining novelI could hardly put the novel down... (Sandgren) turns the reading experience into a puzzle where new pieces constantly fall into place. Collected Works is one of the best books I've read in a long timeA gorgeously enticing novel - extensive and rich,slightly entwined and secretive,the story instantly grabs your attention and refuses to let go of you with a fabulous confidence (...). The fact that it is - to top it all off - question of a debut novel,unquestionably turns Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren into a literary sensation
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