Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Black Swan Books, Limited (2012), 640 pages
Description
The first entry in a trilogy inspired by the unsolved 1986 assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme traces an investigation into an unknown American's death in Stockholm that reveals a complex web of espionage and intelligence failures.
User reviews
LibraryThing member austcrimefiction
As Leif G.W. Persson is a new author for me, I was interested to read the bio in this book:
"Leif Persson is the Grand Master of Scandinavian crime fiction. Over three decades, he has taken a scalpel to the political and social mores of Swedish society in dark, complex and satirical crime novels.
Whatever that means..... More importantly, the blurb eventually goes on to note that he is the author of nine novels, with BETWEEN SUMMER'S LONGING and WINTER'S END being the first translated into English.
This is a massive door stopper of a book at 551 pages, and I will confess to being more than a little concerned about how much of that could possibly be filled by the story of a doubtful suicide of an unknown American in Stockholm. But this book has one of the all-time great opening sequences. One of those "right, let's get into this!" sort of opening sequences which just grabbed interest and seemed to set things off at a snorting pace. From there, well things got ... odd. I've been thinking about this for a while now and I suspect that's going to be the best explanation I can come up with. Before things got very odd. Profoundly odd really. The plot is dense to the point of condensed treacle. It seems to head off in all sorts of directions in short, sharp bursts of viewpoints, snippets, back story, future stories and around in circles and back down laneways and into blind alleys to the point where, frankly, I wasn't sure which book I was still reading about half-way through.
I suspect that the author has a tremendous sense of humour though, and there's a great deal of laugh out loud dark, satirical humour here. That's not to say that the point is humorous - far from it really. It's alternatively funny, shocking, thought-provoking and quite confrontational. There also seems to be a cast of thousands. There were people popping in and out of the story all over the place, and threads wandering in and out of the narrative like they'd got lost in the post somewhere. Combine that jack-in-a-box behaviour with the humour and I did develop a sneaking feeling that we were actually playing some sort of written form of "Whack a Mole". I understand this is book one in a trilogy however, and it could be that a lot of the ins and outs of CIA operatives, secret papers, code names, secret police, corrupt and incompetent governments, Cold War complications and whatever else I've forgotten was going on, will be clarified in the later books once they are released. And here's a quiet plea to please translate the things in order - without too long a delay - so that readers who are interested have got a hope of clinging to the threads!
To be perfectly honest, I finished this book with absolutely NO idea what I was supposed to take away from it. I'm still profoundly confused about what was going on. But if part of the destination is the journey, then this was a ride no doubt about that. I loved the satirical tone, and I didn't mind the odd madcap sort of style. I can live with the idea that I've finished the book with very little idea of what it was all about. Whilst I will be waiting for the following two books, this isn't necessarily a book I'd recommend with no reservations. I think that a reader of BETWEEN SUMMER'S LONGING AND WINTER'S END who enjoys it, is going to be somebody that is open to something very different, happy with a rollercoaster of a ride to more questions than answers, and keen to try something that, to be perfectly frank, is completely and utterly different. And just that little bit odd.
"Leif Persson is the Grand Master of Scandinavian crime fiction. Over three decades, he has taken a scalpel to the political and social mores of Swedish society in dark, complex and satirical crime novels.
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His work melds the social realism of a Balzac or a Dickens with the hard-boiled street smarts of a James Ellroy."Whatever that means..... More importantly, the blurb eventually goes on to note that he is the author of nine novels, with BETWEEN SUMMER'S LONGING and WINTER'S END being the first translated into English.
This is a massive door stopper of a book at 551 pages, and I will confess to being more than a little concerned about how much of that could possibly be filled by the story of a doubtful suicide of an unknown American in Stockholm. But this book has one of the all-time great opening sequences. One of those "right, let's get into this!" sort of opening sequences which just grabbed interest and seemed to set things off at a snorting pace. From there, well things got ... odd. I've been thinking about this for a while now and I suspect that's going to be the best explanation I can come up with. Before things got very odd. Profoundly odd really. The plot is dense to the point of condensed treacle. It seems to head off in all sorts of directions in short, sharp bursts of viewpoints, snippets, back story, future stories and around in circles and back down laneways and into blind alleys to the point where, frankly, I wasn't sure which book I was still reading about half-way through.
I suspect that the author has a tremendous sense of humour though, and there's a great deal of laugh out loud dark, satirical humour here. That's not to say that the point is humorous - far from it really. It's alternatively funny, shocking, thought-provoking and quite confrontational. There also seems to be a cast of thousands. There were people popping in and out of the story all over the place, and threads wandering in and out of the narrative like they'd got lost in the post somewhere. Combine that jack-in-a-box behaviour with the humour and I did develop a sneaking feeling that we were actually playing some sort of written form of "Whack a Mole". I understand this is book one in a trilogy however, and it could be that a lot of the ins and outs of CIA operatives, secret papers, code names, secret police, corrupt and incompetent governments, Cold War complications and whatever else I've forgotten was going on, will be clarified in the later books once they are released. And here's a quiet plea to please translate the things in order - without too long a delay - so that readers who are interested have got a hope of clinging to the threads!
To be perfectly honest, I finished this book with absolutely NO idea what I was supposed to take away from it. I'm still profoundly confused about what was going on. But if part of the destination is the journey, then this was a ride no doubt about that. I loved the satirical tone, and I didn't mind the odd madcap sort of style. I can live with the idea that I've finished the book with very little idea of what it was all about. Whilst I will be waiting for the following two books, this isn't necessarily a book I'd recommend with no reservations. I think that a reader of BETWEEN SUMMER'S LONGING AND WINTER'S END who enjoys it, is going to be somebody that is open to something very different, happy with a rollercoaster of a ride to more questions than answers, and keen to try something that, to be perfectly frank, is completely and utterly different. And just that little bit odd.
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LibraryThing member bfister
A long, involved, deeply cynical conspiracy theory that just didn't work for me. I couldn't bring myself to keep the enormous cast straight or care about any of them.
LibraryThing member callmecayce
A different sort of Scandinavian mystery. Though compared to Mankell and Larsson, it is not like those at all. Instead of following just one or two characters, Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End has at least 10 more. Some are bit parts, while others are more main characters. The plot is less
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mystery than political thriller. Though the novel is sort of about the assassination of the Swedish prime minster in the 80s, it's more about the build up and a suicide. The novel is not fast paced, it sometimes drifts off into history (which is one similarity with Stieg Larsson's series) of Swedish's police force or secret police. But overall, it was an enjoyable read and the end was surprisingly satisfying, if not super creepy. Show Less
LibraryThing member WinstonDog
Swedish author. Very different style- not quite Hemmingway but very wordy. 300 pages into a 549 novel and just now getting an inkling what might be happening. I'll report back when I am finished.
LibraryThing member jkdavies
Well, an interesting book... very multi-perspectived which wasn't always easy to keep track of but suited the multi-layered story... Because of the multiple perspectives, it kept you guessing who was hero, who was villain in the book, and of course with the realistic ambiguity in life, sometimes a
Overall interesting, I probably would read other books by him, although only Another Time, Another Life is translated into English as far as I can tell... and that sounds interesting too, dealing with Baader Meinhof & Stockholm syndrome
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character is a bit of both. Overall interesting, I probably would read other books by him, although only Another Time, Another Life is translated into English as far as I can tell... and that sounds interesting too, dealing with Baader Meinhof & Stockholm syndrome
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LibraryThing member RowingRabbit
This is the first of a trilogy that traces the the history of Swedish politics from post WWII social democrats to the present day rise of far right groups.
Book #1 is a biting political satire that follows a whack of characters who all have ties to the country’s police & secret security services.
Just as in real life, multiple theories are presented as to who pulled the trigger. The police are depicted as a bloated organization with incompetents ruling individual fiefdoms. There is little coordination which results in different departments stepping all over each others’ investigations as they rush to make it to the nearest bar for last call.
Overlooking this mess is the “secret” police, a type of big brother organization that isn’t much better. It has multiple levels with ridiculous names that spend more time spying on each other than civilians. At times I couldn’t help thinking it was like something out of Monty Python with secret police, very secret police & really, really secret police. Almost to a man, these are despicable people engaged in a constant game of “he who collects the most dirt on everyone else” wins.
There are also characters from all the factions that have been suspected of killing Palme. They include Kurds, South Africans, CIA agents & traitors from within the Swedish government.
It’s a well written, intricate tale of spy vs spy & the author clearly know his stuff. But due to its dense, slow moving literary style I’d really only recommend for those with an interest in Swedish politics or the Palme case. In real life, the search for his killer is still open & is now the most expensive murder investigation in history (currently at about $45 million dollars over the last 30 years).
Book #1 is a biting political satire that follows a whack of characters who all have ties to the country’s police & secret security services.
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It culminates with the assassination of the prime minister, obviously based on the murder of Olaf Palme in 1986. Just as in real life, multiple theories are presented as to who pulled the trigger. The police are depicted as a bloated organization with incompetents ruling individual fiefdoms. There is little coordination which results in different departments stepping all over each others’ investigations as they rush to make it to the nearest bar for last call.
Overlooking this mess is the “secret” police, a type of big brother organization that isn’t much better. It has multiple levels with ridiculous names that spend more time spying on each other than civilians. At times I couldn’t help thinking it was like something out of Monty Python with secret police, very secret police & really, really secret police. Almost to a man, these are despicable people engaged in a constant game of “he who collects the most dirt on everyone else” wins.
There are also characters from all the factions that have been suspected of killing Palme. They include Kurds, South Africans, CIA agents & traitors from within the Swedish government.
It’s a well written, intricate tale of spy vs spy & the author clearly know his stuff. But due to its dense, slow moving literary style I’d really only recommend for those with an interest in Swedish politics or the Palme case. In real life, the search for his killer is still open & is now the most expensive murder investigation in history (currently at about $45 million dollars over the last 30 years).
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LibraryThing member johnwbeha
"What a peculiar man" - this phrase opens the last paragraph of the book, but could easily be the book's title (substituting the plural for the singular. Can Swedish law enforcement (which we know is a haven for depressives) really have contained so many drunks, sociopaths and neo-Nazis and in such
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senior positions as well? The book is at least two hundred pages too long and, apparently, is the first on a trilogy. Well I can tell you I will not be finding out! Show Less
Awards
Glass Key Award (Nominee — 2003)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
640 p.; 5 inches
ISBN
0552774685 / 9780552774680
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DDC/MDS
| 833.914 |