Tässä pienessä kirjassa tapahtuu samalla paljon ja ei niin paljon. Teemoja on useita, ehkä vähän liikaakin, monenlaiset menetykset ja surut joiden vaikutukset näkyvät seuraavissakin sukupolvissa ja hiljaisuus joka niitä eteenpäin kantaa. Tämä ei koskettanut minua samalla tavalla kuin vaikka Laula minulle lempeitä lauluja, ehkä syy on minussa. En osannut keskittyä tähän verkkaiseen etenemiseen ja ilmeettömään surumielisyyteen. ( )

En stillsamt berättad bok i samma anda som Jag vill sjunga dig milda sånger men den når inte upp till samma kvalitet som debutboken. En riktig kärleksberättelse med mycket vemod. Linda Olsson är fantastisk på att berätta och förmedla känslor. ( )

A disappointment from one of my favorite authors. While the writing and structure are absolutely beautiful, the story and characters left me with no sympathy and no desire to get to know them better, as well as very little understanding of what the purpose of the story was.

Adam is grieving the death of his daughter, which happens very early in the story. He is grieving, but we seem to get in on the end of it because there is no sense of heart-wrenching, brokenness, or despair. Instead, I was left with the feeling that since a main aspect of Adam's life was now gone, he simply needed to replace it with something or someone else. And the story centers around this search.

Toward the end of the book, we switch to Cecilia's voice. The woman who gave up her child with no valid explanation. And we never understand why. We never understand what this grief is that Adam claims she has. She comes across as very self-serving, self-absorbed, and everyone panders to her.

All in all, this book is a collection of beautifully crafted sentences and paragraphs, which have nothing at all to say. Not recommended. ( )

This is not so good an effort as [Astrid & Veronika]. It’s really Adam’s story, I think. But because she uses first person, and because Adam was unaware of Cecilia’s story, she has to switch to Cecilia’s outlook mid-way. This transition is awkward and disconcerting.

In effect there are TWO stories here. Adam’s search for his past. And Cecilia’s need to reconcile her past in order to explain her present, and possibly to build their future. ( )

Wonderfully beautiful but plain prose. This is a quiet book by a very talented author that manages to give the reader so many details in such a wonderful way that one can't help but placing themselves in the characters place as they are reading. If I had to choose a theme for this book it would be silence, this is mentioned so many times in so many different ways in this story. The silence of self delusion, of not wanting to know, of questions not asked nor answered, of peace and beauty and the silence of a remembered love. We travel from New Zealand, to Poland, to Sweden with a man who know longer feels that he has a future, so decides to seek the truth about his past. Need to go back and read this author's first book [book:Astrid and Veronika|181086, which I have heard amazing things about. ( )