This partly sad, partly very funny, partly informative and totally heartwarming story captured me and kept me reading. Máriddja:, a very elderly Sami woman who has a penchant for goats that caused her eccentricity to show early in her life has learned she has terminal cancer. Her husband Biera, also Sami is one of those transplanted from the North in a problematic government attempt to consolidate very different cultures onto too little land. Máriddja: will not tell Biera about her diagnosis, but she is desperate to figure out how he will make out without her. He loses things a lot, like his favorite knife and his gun. The couple has been alone many years, since Biera’s sister set out for parts unknown with her young son, beloved by his uncle and aunt. Máriddja: begins a quest to figure out how to provide for Biera, possibly by finding their only relatives.
Meanwhile, Kaj and Mimmi are moving north to work in a hospital. They meet some local people and begin life in their new house by getting engaged. One neighbor is a little boy who hangs around well beyond what Kaj finds comfortable. That relationship and the lifestyle changes the couple make from the big city to a rural town plays out beautifully throughout the novel. Kaj’s mother died recently and there are boxes in the new house to go through marked with his name. She was an artist and was not very nurturing. He has always had questions about their relationship, although he was always well provided for.
As the two stories continue in alternating points of views of a couple in their thirties and a couple in their eighties, Máriddja: seems to become utterly mad and Biera remains utterly oblivious. The parallel tales are engaging throughout. Highly recommend to people who, like me, have enjoyed other Swedish writers or stories of rural lives. Or anyone, for that matter.
They Called me Bookworm 