Quicksand

January 23, 2017
Gioloto’s English-language debut, a bestseller in her native Sweden, reads like an adaptation of a ripped-from-the-headlines arc of Law & Order. Chapter headings resemble timeline captions on a TV screen—“Week 1 of Trial: Friday”—and the novel proceeds chronologically, starting with “The Classroom” where the crime happened. A high school student named Maria Norberg, aka Maja, is on trial for the murder of several classmates, and she meticulously recounts her experience in a remote first-person voice. With Maja treating the reader as a confidant, key bits of exposition arrive idiosyncratically, and the backstory comes together small piece by small piece, like a jigsaw puzzle. Maja pleads not guilty; her charming lawyer Peter Sander places the blame squarely on fellow student Sebastian Fagerman, one of the victims. It’s not until more than 100 pages in that the names (and number) of the victims are listed. This methodical and straightforward plotting, in the tradition of Barbara Vine, may either tantalize or frustrate American readers used to a crackling pace and a surfeit of twists. Nevertheless, Gioloto’s novel is haunting and immersive.

Saskia Maarleveld expertly teases out the many questions swirling around this story's unreliable teen narrator. Charged with involvement in a school shooting at an elite private school in Stockholm, Maja is initially unlikable. But Maarleveld coaxes out the audiobook's nuances, capturing Maja's emotional shifts from petty scorn to longing uncertainty to a dawning sense of responsibility and its limits. Framed as a court case, the audiobook includes helpful time stamps--such as "week one of trial"--that orient listeners as Maja's monologue weaves through time retrieving vignettes and insights that complicate an easy take on what happened. This absorbing psychological study unfolds as an intimate confession to the reader. Maja may not win our affection, but Maarleveld's skillful narration ensures that she gains our understanding. J.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine