To Mervas

Starred review from March 22, 2010
A wrenching tale by Swedish novelist and poet Rynell traces a woman's personal journey through shame and violence. Out of the blue, Marta receives a troubling note from an ex-lover, Kosti, whom she has tried to forget for more than 20 years and who now inexplicably summons her to Mervas, an all but abandoned Nordic mining town. Marta, nearing 50, with a long-suppressed background of growing up under an intensely abusive father, has recently come to peace with the death of her teenage son, whose severe physical and mental handicaps had absorbed her life. Not insignificantly, Marta and Kosti broke up because she wanted to have kids, and he didn't, and so she got pregnant by someone else. The novel cuts to devastating flashbacks and flash forwards as Marta travels to Mervas, while a tender interlude with an elderly couple challenges Marta to stop hiding from her life. Rynell proves a fearless writer in this emotionally relentless work and finds a lyrical grace in Marta's self-awareness.