"Astrid & Veronika," by Linda Olsson

As I mentioned in my 7/15/18 post about what I read on a recent trip to Canada, I liked the novel “A Sister in My House,” although it was sad and even a bit grim. After that, I read another novel by the same author, Linda Olsson, titled “Astrid & Veronika” (Penguin, 2005). I also liked this book, partly because of and partly in spite of its similarity in tone and even plot to the “Sister” book. In both cases, the main characters, two women, have had difficult lives full of childhood trauma and further losses in adulthood. In both cases, the two gradually learn to trust each other, and allow each other to see each's vulnerabilities. The novels are both rather slow going and fraught, but also are both positive in the sense that the characters learn (slowly, partially) to heal. Veronika is a young woman writer from Sweden who moved to New Zealand to be with the man she loves. As this novel starts, she has (because of something tragic that happened in New Zealand) returned to Sweden and is renting a house in the forest outside a small village, using it as a refuge and also a place to work on her novel. There she meets her nearest neighbor, a much older woman called Astrid who is more or less a recluse; gradually they become very close friends, and teach each other lessons about life. The writing is beautiful, as it describes the two women savoring the simple pleasures of walks in the woods, good food and wine eaten and drunk slowly and companionably, and halting but encouraging conversations. Not least of the pleasures for the reader is the portrayal of the joys and rewards of female friendship. A lovely book.