Letter from Malmö
In the twilight of his life, Bo of 89 years lives alone with his dog, Sixten, in a small town in northern Sweden. His wife, Fredrika, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, has been living in an elderly home for three years. In moments of clarity, the eldest man, whose health, declineing, remembers fundamental episodes of his life is: his tumultuous relationship with his father, who, like him, worked in a sawmill; His deep friendship with Ture, who never had a known couple; The birth of his son Hans, with whom communication is difficult … amid the visits of household care aids, bo fights to maintain control over his life and his dog, whom he no longer has the strength to take care of.
This summarizes the plot of When cranes fly south: A debut novel by Lisa Ridzén on the issue of aging, which has had an unexpected trip, moving Swedish readers. Run in January 2024, the book sold around 190,000 copies (in printing and audio) in a country of ten million people, which is dealing with a reading crisis, where the sale of 5,000 copies, outside the crime novels, is sufficient to consider a success. In addition, Coronado “Book of the year” by readers of the Gothenburg Book Fair in September 2024, the novel has already been sold in 30 countries. In Germany, 9 editors, part of the auction to acquire the rights.
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