I thoroughly enjoyed Lindqvist's earlier novels, Let The Right One In (aka "Let Me In" in the US) and Handling the Undead, so I was eager to read this one, his newest novel translated into English. Got this from a friend for Christmas!

The previous books dealt with vampires and a type of walking dead; this book's more of a ghost story with some very unusual aspects. A young couple's child disappears under impossible circumstances, an old man who was a professional stage magician has acquired some very real elemental magic (in a truly bizarre form), and a small island community seems to be under attack by vandals - but are they mortal or something else?

While I did enjoy the book, I found that it seemed a bit bloated; even the climax seemed to go on longer than felt necessary. (I also found the conclusion a bit too... simplistic? ... given the rest of the story, and not very satisfactory, though other readers might prefer this ending to the type I had in mind!) My favorite parts involved the flashbacks to Anna-Greta's youth (the smuggling incident is priceless), and her eventual meeting with Simon (the magician - I was amused to see that Lindqvist had worked as a stage magician himself, explaining the loving detail of Simon's past). In fact, I preferred their parts of the storyline in general; it was lovely to learn about their different pasts, how they fell in love, fought for each other (literally, at one point), and how they maintained their connection into old age.

Poor Anders, father of the missing child, spends much of his part of the story suffering from grief, shock, and/or hangovers, and later on from the trauma of his discoveries of what's really going on in his family's community, and while I was sympathetic to his situation, it wasn't comfortable being in his mind.

The story touches on the very human fears of losing a child, of aging, of the loss of health, loved ones, memories... Then there's the fear of being an outsider (poor Henrik and Bjorn), the fear of going hungry, the fear of things that go bump in the night - plenty of things to fear here, though for me this rendered the final, biggest fear rather disappointing by contrast; maybe I was just tired of being on edge by then.

One aspect of the story that intrigued me, minor with relation to the plot but a great indicator of the characters involved: [spoiler: the hints to the reader that Anders' daughter Maja wasn't quite the sweet little girl he remembered. Later on, he's forced to see her through the eyes of others, and that puts him through one of his darkest hours.] All too believable, that; compared with that aspect of the story, the conclusion had much less power, at least for me. I'd almost have preferred it if that were the final revelation.

So - excellent setting and some fascinating characters, some very unsettling scenes, but - for me - a conclusion that didn't seem to fit with everything that had gone before. Still worth reading, though!

I donated this book to the library book-sale shelves in the lobby of the Nashua Public Library at around 2 or so. [They sell donated books for low prices, with the proceeds going to benefit library activities.] Hope the buyer enjoys the book!