Breathless

August 1, 2013
Swedish novelist Sward's American debut chronicles the slightly off-kilter friendship between a young girl from an unconventional Swedish family and an older boy who has immigrated to Sweden from Hungary with his father. Before her birth in 1969, Lo's extended family moved to the more refined south from hardscrabble northern Sweden at the urging of Lo's paternal grandfather, Bjorn. His son is Lo's father, David, but the love between Lo's parents is shadowed by the unspoken, unconsummated passion between Lo's mother, Katarina, and Bjorn. Raised in a household of 13 adults--her parents, her grandparents on both sides and various aunts and uncles--Lo remains happily swathed in the family's love and protection until she is 6, when she meets Lukas at a fire that has broken out in the village. Already 13, Lukas seems younger since he has barely been domesticated. He lives with his father, who speaks no Swedish and beats him. After he rides her home on his bicycle, Lukas and Lo form an immediate bond. Lukas is every mother's nightmare--too old, too wild--and Lo's family forbids their friendship. Lo is an able if disinterested student; Lukas can barely read. But Lo remains undaunted in her loyalty. For years, she and Lukas meet regularly at the abandoned cabin in the woods. They watch Katarina's favorite French film Breathless and swim naked in the stream. They are physically at ease with each other's bodies, but even after Lukas reaches horny adolescence, there's no sexual experimenting. At 15, Lo travels to Copenhagen with Lukas, now a working adult, at least on the surface. His physical desire manifests itself. But his love remains pure. Lo's does not. And her betrayal haunts her into adulthood. Interspersed with Lo's recollections of her childhood are descriptions of her wandering adulthood and loveless adult sex life. The sensual but grim story of damaged souls never rises above a simmer.

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August 1, 2013
Lo is only seven when she meets Lukas, who is 13, and the two become improbable friends, to the consternation of Lo's family, who don't trust the boy's motivation. Yet there is an innocence to their increasingly intense friendship as the two grow up togetheruntil they take a surprise trip to Copenhagen, where something happens that changes their friendship forever. As in their favorite movie, Breathless, there will be a subsequent betrayal that shocks the reader and transforms Lo into a Bohemian vagabond, traveling from empty tryst to empty tryst and carrying with her an unread letter from Lukas that, if only she had read it, might have changed things. But, as she thinks, childhood is not a place to which you can return. Swrd's novel is a closely observed study in character and the sometimes capricious, sometimes careless, but life-changing choices that people make. Unfortunately, many of these choices seem to be unmotivated or driven, perhaps, by fate in a novel that often seems emotionally arid. Though its ending is dramatically unsatisfying, this Swedish import will nevertheless satisfy fans of character-driven international fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

March 15, 2013

Sward's August Prize nominee has been resonating with me since I saw the galley highlighted at ALA Midwinter. The story concerns six-year-old Lo and 13-year-old Lukas, both from immigrant families in Sweden, who forge a tight friendship as they meet at an abandoned lake house, enthusiastically reciting lines from Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless. Then their innocent relationship is destroyed.

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