Hundsköpfe (Hundehoved) by Morten Ramsland

What is it about Skandinavian family sagas, that they all have such a similar flavour? Which I actually like. If you enjoyed “Hannah and her daughters”, you’ll also enjoy this one. The story spans serveral generations which are all spinning around just slightly off axis. It feels rather autobiographical, even if it is not, the characters have depth and complexity and feel real even though I must admit, I know no one who resembles them. There is only one thing… but that might be more my fault than the book’s: Four generations result in too many people to keep straight and I wouldn’t be able to really remember, who is who. Especially as more than one son runs away and becomes a sailor and, just in general, it seems as if the faults of the fathers are inherited by the sons…

The Quiet Girl (Peter Hoeg)

I tried to tell a friend about the story of this book and after a few sentences she interrupted me: “That sounds like you just woke up from a weird dream that you only half recall.” That’s what it felt like, reading it: An out-of-luck clown with exceptional hearing is looking for a little girl with a gift for silence, who is one of a group of kids who are all special because they were pronounced dead after their pre-term birth, but there was a rainbow when they were born and thus they came back to life and now they seem to be able to cause earthquakes… or maybe just predict them? An evil business consortium and an order of nuns try to use the kids for their own causes etc. A lot of musical and philosophical quotes and even though by page 100 I still didn’t know what all this was about, I kept on reading, which is rare for me.

Everyone loves Smilla, I do too. And his “Borderliners” was one of my favorite books when I read it years and years ago. “History of Danish Dreams” on the other hand left me about as confused as this one, but I didn’t have the patience to finish it. No idea how many stars for this one…