PositiveSwedish Book Review...a modern-day Bildungsroman, at once an 11-year-old girl’s revolt against adolescence and a study in depression, written in prose so taut that the emotional and intellectual impact of the story lingers on long after the final page is turned ... The novel resonates with an ominous undercurrent of violence and the desperate assertion of will ... There are striking parallels with Strindberg’s one-act play, Den starkare (The Stronger), 1888/1889, in which one actress remains mute in an emotional power struggle with another. This contemporary rendering of those concepts skilfully shines a light on the fragmentation of today’s society, the lack of sense of community even within a single, small family, and their inability to connect deeply with others. All this is masterfully condensed into fewer than 100 pages in the voice of a confused yet eloquent girl, in what proves to be an intense reading experience.
