‘Antarctica of Love’ is one of a kind! I have never read a novel quite like it. It is written beautifully and almost too perfect that it made some of scenes uncomfortable to read as they could be very graphic in parts. Overall it was a very riveting read and it was intriguing for Inni’s role as a mother and drug addict had to play in her children’s lives even after her death. Would definitely recommend this book just for the way it is written even if the subject matter doesn’t interest you.

Far too depressing and graphic for this reader. I understood what the book was about and the premise was interesting about a woman speaking out from beyond the grave. But this was just depressive wallowing and I didn't finish it.

So, this is the first book, to my knowledge that has been translated. I found in parts that it didn't seem to read well, that being said, I understood and it didn't cause any issues. This was a hard-hitting book, it pulled at the emotions and in parts, I actually felt a little ill due to the descriptive nature of the murder. I thought it was written really well, it was haunting and captivating but I felt that it could have been shorter. That being said, it isn't a particularly long book, I read it in a few days. I found the plot lacking in suspense, you already know what has happened from the outset. I felt sorry for the character and wish she had fought harder for her life, she seemed to accept that she was going to be murdered by 'the Hunter' although she does explain some of her reasons for doing so. I also felt sorry for her children and the fact that she lost them. She needed a lot of help but never seemed to want it, or search for it. I found her to be quite a self-destructive character.

I'm glad I read it and I do thank NetGalley and Quercus Books for the digital ARC in return for an honest review.

This is a chilling work of literary fantasy where ‘Inni’ describes her own brutal death, we view her life before this and afterwards, for those left behind.

Although there are sections in the book where it is undoubtedly gruesome and disturbing the quality of the writing is lyrical and almost poetic in places. The descriptions are beautiful especially of places which contrasts starkly with the horror of her death at such a young age (24). She describes herself as like Snow White and is unafraid, indeed, she seems to have gone with her killer, perceiving and accepting her fate in a resigned, fatalistic way with no desire to be saved. This is beyond sad that a person has come to such a low ebb. The insights into the mind of a person pre and post death are raw and haunting. You sense her hunter or stalker just as she does. The glimpse into her life reveals regret especially with regard to her mother Raksha and children Valle and Solveig who are taken into foster care. One of the most unbearable sad parts of the book when she looks down on Valle and sees a lonely, fearful child, not really wanted and merely tolerated. Inni’s life became one of addiction which leads to a risky life in order to feed the addiction, living on the margins of society, so clearly her story is dark and intense. Some of the storytelling becomes surreal in places, at times it is sentimental, at others regretful, philosophical and reflective and so is a perplexing but powerful mix. The translation is exceptionally good allowing the storyline to flow. My only negative is that is is a bit repetitive and so could probably have been shortened which could have achieved an even greater impact on the reader.

Overall, this is an original, unique, enigmatic and thought provoking read. At times brutal, horrific and hard but by equal measure it’s intense, insightful and thoughtful. It’s not for everyone but I’m so glad I read it as it’s not a book to be forgotten.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Quercus Books, MacLehose Press for the much appreciated arc for an honest review.

Dreamlike and haunting, The Antarctica of Love is a harrowing tale of loss, addiction and life.

Her soul lingering between this world and the next, we read from the perspective of a murder victim. Through lyrical prose we hear through her own words how she died, her perspective on the tumultuous life she has lead and watching those she has left behind.

This is not an easy book to read and it isn't a pleasant one. There is an unsettling tone that runs through the pages creating a tension that continuously ticks through the novel. There is an interesting juxtaposition between unflinchingly brutal scenes that are written almost like poetry. The gruesome moments are written with beauty and tenderness that makes this novel feel truly unique.

The only issue I had this book was that I felt although the unique writing style was beautiful, paired with quite a of time jumping it did become quite confusing to keep track of it all. I feel like this book could have been even more powerful if it had been condensed by 100 pages or so and become more a short story that would make an impactful little fable.

A haunting look at the other side of the thriller from the victim’s perspective, this was not a read for me with it’s extremely slow pace as it peels away at the layers of who the character is with dense immersive description. Trigger warning for violence, abuse, drugs and murder in the first few chapters, which is an ominous foreboding opening that really sets a dark tone that I couldn’t persevere with. Like an adult Swedish Lovely Bones, this is a difficult read but will really appeal to thriller lovers and anyone enjoying a close character study.

Everyone weeps apart from me, but something inside me has frozen. It isn’t just the tears, it is something else. A disillusionment so deep, so penetrating, the freezing point of blood, the ultimate Antarctica of love.

The Antarctica of Love has been translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner from the 2018 original by Sara Stridsberg. The wonderful Faculty of Dreams from the same translator/author was perhaps my favourite novel on a strong 2019 Man Booker International longlist (my review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2748657067).

The Antarctica of Love is narrated by a dead woman, who, about to turn 24 and in June 1982 (the day, she tells us, the Falkland Wars ended), was raped, murdered and her body dismembered by a man who had picked her up in Stockholm, before taking her out of the city to a lake in a forest. Her Stockholm is not that of tourist postcards:

"It is an archaic landscape swept by cold, harsh winds; it looks modern but it is ancient. A cluster of islands surrounded by motionless seawater beneath a naked sky. A patchwork of faded facades in yellow and pink with modern buildings made of black steel and glass. Bank headquarters, shopping malls and multi-storey car parks have a futuristic look, but age-old thoughts fill people’s minds, ponderous, inalterable; there are victims, there are perpetrators, there are witnesses, and they all peer down at the ground. The well-heeled live in the centre, as they always have. And the lifeblood of this city circulates along Herkulesgatan and from there to the banks, the money moves in and out of the state, and the architecture framing all of this is raw and cold. Some are doomed to failure, others destined to advance, a certain few will rise above the rest; and you can see the early signs, children defined from the start. A secret watermark or a caste mark glowing under the skin on a child’s brow.

And in this city there is also someone who has been stalking me for quite some time, or chasing someone like me, a girl who no longer cares what happens to her. Let us call him the huntsman."

Her connections with those left behind cause her to linger:

"Someday I too will be indifferent to what happens on earth, like everyone else. But that takes time, and there are so many voices not yet hushed. A distant hubbub from professors and criminologists and private investigators and journalists. They say you die three times. The first time for me was when my heart stopped beating beneath his hands by the lake, and the second was when what was left of me was lowered into the ground in front of Ivan and Raksha at Solna Church. The third time will be the last time my name is spoken on earth. And so I am waiting for it to happen. I wish all the voices would hush soon. I don’t like hearing my name. It crawls like insects in the place where my heart once was."

The narrator, whose name we learn near the novel’s end is Kristina, is a heroin addict and was working as a prostitute at the time. Her parents Ivan and Raksha were alcoholics, and her younger brother, Eskil, drowned when she was 12 and he was 5. She had two children with her partner, neither with her at the time of her death: the elder son Valle taken by the authorities into foster care and the younger daughter Solveig voluntarily given up for adoption hours after her birth.

The novel has three interwoven strands: Kristina’s step-by-step recollection of her death, her memories of her own life, and the lives of her parents and children which she traces, over the years following her death.

The text is an unsettling mixture of brutality and sentimentality, with lyrical but unsparing descriptions of disturbing scenes:

"I would like to have my head back, I miss it. They always dispose of the head first, to eliminate the horror of looking a dead person in the eye. It is the gaze they want to get rid of; that is why they kill, to extinguish the light in the eyes, the stranger staring out from a foreign land. The head often ends up in a rubbish chute or a skip. Not mine; mine disappears into the slurry pit with the pink surface, sinking slowly to the bottom; and as it descends, my hair opens out like a little parachute over my head. No-one ever comes to find it. The thick, frothy liquid dissolves my face first, and then the rest. I would rather have been a skeleton in a secondary school somewhere, sitting there empty-eyed, an earthly representative of the dead."

Overall, this was a powerful novel, if at times a very difficult one.

My one issue, but this is perhaps more my personal taste, is that the novel’s effect if anything was diffused by repetition and the wide scope - for me this would have been more powerful as a more concentrated 100-150 page text.

4 stars.

Well written story about a mother’s experiences after death. Interesting read however I personally found the book very graphic and dark. Not my typical genre but I can recognise the author’s writing style and use of excellent storytelling techniques.
I probably won’t read anything further from this author as some of this book was too heavy for me.