Under the Storm by Christoffer Carlsson
Life is complicated and a part of being human is that we may not be able to manage it all perfectly, but we keep trying. We keep obsessively driving for flawlessness and certainty. This is the theme of the newly translated and masterfully constructed Swedish literary thriller/mystery Under the Storm.
My public library offers BookPage free every month with recommendations in all genres. That’s where I found the review for Under the Storm in the featured police procedural section. It sounded like a terrific cold case investigation, and, like other Swedish novels, bleak, introspective, complex, and ambiguous. The Swedish word kymig—meaning spooky, sinister, uncanny—recurs several times at key moments and first appears as the story starts.
“They say death takes you. It’s an odd expression, from the time back when death was an actual character you could meet in the Marbäck forest or along the road. An ice-cold hand grabs you by the throat; a shadow expands around your body until you can no longer breathe. That’s how you picture it when you’re a child.
People say other things too. There’s this word, used by old men and women around here. It comes across their lips like sinister smoke when someone is a little mean or nasty, when a place or thing has this unpleasant, uncanny feel to it: kymig.
He’s kymig, that one. Never liked him.
Don’t go there. That house feels so kymig.
I did something kymigt tonight.
That’s what people say. And, if you were to suddenly find yourself in some kind of danger, it’s not I don’t know what to do but I don’t know where to put myself. As if your first instinct is to hide.” [p. 3]
In Marbäck, Halland, Sweden on November 1994, a crime is committed. This crime and its aftermath are described in a narrative that centers on two unforgettable characters: Vidar Jörgensson, a police officer with deep roots in the tiny community where the crime takes place (he and his father, Sven, also a cop, are also characters in Carlsson’s Blaze Me A Sun); and Isak Nyqkvist, a seven-year-old boy haunted by the fear that he has inherited a violent trait, that he has been “born bad.” Both characters are alienated from those around them and unable to manage the challenges their daily lives produce. Both are radically influenced by and obsessed with the crime.
The strength of Under the Storm lies in Christoffer Carlsson’s ability to develop each of the story’s complex characters and to use the environment to intensify dramatic scenes. He is well acquainted with Marbäck, Halland, as he was born and raised near there. He knows first-hand the deceptions and hostilities that can lurk in small communities. He’s also an expert in criminal behavior. He received his PhD in criminology at the University of Stockholm and has worked as a researcher with the Swedish national coordinator for protecting democracy against violent extremism. In 2019, he received Stockholm University’s Award for Good Teaching a prize awarded to teachers who “promote students’ learning through outstanding pedagogical efforts, recognized interest and commitment to the development of teaching, and recognized teaching skills.” Three of his novels Under the Storm, Blaze Me A Sun, and The Living and the Dead that take place in Halland have received numerous awards.
This is a lengthy novel with a great deal of skillfully observed detail about the rural setting and its residents. The writing (in translation) is impressive with the narrative offering an excellent whodunnit as well as an intense social and psychological drama about peoples’ lives, loves, and inescapable tragedies. I hope you love it as much as I did!
Note. Translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson Broyles; originally published in Sweden in 2021 as Jartecken by Albert Bonniers Forlag Publishers.
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