I Am Behind You

July 23, 2018
Four families and their vacation caravans are somehow transported into a seemingly endless grassy meadow in Lindqvist’s ambitious and frustrating novel of cosmic horror, the first of a projected trilogy. Their world now includes a bright sky, no sun, a lot of grass, three married couples of various degrees of happiness, two friends who are inching toward romance, two children, one cat, one dog, and whatever was in the caravans when they arrived. GPS maps show them in places they cannot possibly be, such as on roads that ceased to exist years ago. The radio works, but plays only songs written by Peter Himmelstrand, a real-life 1960s Swedish pop star. (In Sweden, the title of the novel is Himmelstrand.) Unsurprisingly, tensions in the group are high, especially since unpleasant, elderly Donald has a gun, and Molly, one of the children, is a budding psychopath. The characters, the group dynamics, and the unfolding mystery of what’s going on and why are well-depicted and engrossing, but the ending peters out in a futile attempt to remain emotionally satisfying while still leaving most events unexplained. A future book may shed more light, but the first installment makes it difficult to maintain enough investment in the story to want more of it. Agent: Anneli Høier, Copenhagen Literary (Sweden).

Narrator Peter Noble handles this audiobook's shifting perspectives with aplomb. In Sweden, four vacationing families awaken one morning to find their campsite gone. Instead, they are surrounded by a sunless blue sky and an endless landscape of manicured grass. Not surprisingly, tensions mount as the group tries to figure out what's happened to them. Noble provides unique voices for the characters and makes their quickly paced dialogue easy to follow. Most impressively, he subtly changes his tone and pitch as the author explores the internal lives of the adult couples, two kids (one of whom has a sinister edge), and even a curious dog. Though the novel has its flaws, Noble's confident narration has enough drive to keep listeners hooked. A.T.N. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine