The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat and Other Stories from the North

This collection contains 18 short stories by writers from the eight distinctive Nordic lands of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Åland Islands, Greenland an Iceland. Among the authors are some well-known names like Per Olov Enquist, Madame Nielsen, Linda Boström Knausgård, and Guðbergur Bergsson, and some writers whom I hadn't heard of yet, but I am glad that I know now. In case you are hesitant regarding the selection that was made here - the editor was the fantastic Sjón, so don't fear, you're in for a treat!

While the themes and topics of the texts vary strongly, there is one element that seems to connect them: In these stories, there is more to life than reality, emotional landscapes and the fantastical are important means to describe the human experience, and to find truth, these writers don't stop at the factual - there is far more territory to conquer. And of course, the book is full of dry humor and outrageous imagination.

Who is the mysterious man in the boat? Will Madame Nielsen sooner or later turn into Peter Høeg? Why does a father suddenly behave like a dog? And why does Greenlander Fia absolutely need to get to San Francisco? I particulary loved "The White-Bear King Valemon", a story that was modelled after a Norwegian fairytale and is equally enchanting and disturbing.

So go and read more Nordic literature, starting with this book!

"The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat" is a compilation consisting of eighteen short stories. Eight distinct Nordic lands are represented...Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Aland Islands. Some stories reflect endurance and survival in the forest or at sea. Others are based upon folklore. One thing is certain, the storytelling is superb.

"The Man in the Boat" by Per Olov Enquist (Sweden) is the story of two young boys who haul and hide three logs stuck on shore during springtime logging season. They cover and camouflage the logs, planning to build a raft. Upon completion, they pole out at night into the nearby lake. This is to become "a day when everything ended and everything began", the day tragedy struck.

"In a Deer Stand" by Dorthe Nors (Denmark), it is a question of time. A forty-seven year old man has driven out to the forest alone, no cell phone, has he broken his ankle? When he left home he seemed depressed. He is sitting in a deer stand. Will help come? Did he hear a wolf?

"From Ice" by Ulla-Lena Lundberg (Aland Islands). How did Irina Gyllen flee from the Soviet Union to Finland? She once was a Finnish citizen. She has left a child behind in Russia. Her medical license from the Soviet Union is not valid in Finland. She practices midwifery instead now. When she wakes up each morning, she takes pills to make her memories manageable.

"The Dark Blue Overcoat" by Johan Bargam (Finland). Why did an estranged father turn into a dog? Father has remarried. New wife Melaine says he is a mongrel. "I got him from a lady that did not want him anymore". Did he have a specific agenda? After all, his son was called to New York from Finland to visit him.

"Some People Run in Shorts" by Solrun Michelsen (Faroe Islands). Life in the modern world. People are always running, in a hurry to get from point A to point B. The runner is worn out, he can't stop himself. He wants to stop the carousel and get off. He needed help, even at another person's expense.

By presenting a snippet of five stories, it is my hope that readers will be encouraged to check out this anthology of Nordic literature. I am glad I did! Thank you to Ted Hodgkinson and Sjon for their informative introduction.

Thank you Pushkin Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Dark Blue Overcoat & Other Stories from the North".

Stories from “the North”, proclaims the cover of this anthology. But what are we to understand by “the North”? For the purposes of this collection, co-editors Sjón (Sigurjón B. Sigurðsson) and Ted Hodgkinson have harvested short stories from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Åland Islands, Greenland and Iceland, which are the countries which generally feature in the Nordic Literature Prize awards. In the co-editors’ interview-like introduction, they try to single out the elements which unite these seemingly disparate cultures. A more-or-less shared millennial history is one of these characteristics. But there’s also a common experience of battling with extreme weather and social conditions at the furthest Northern outposts of civilisation.

The co-editors make another very interesting and relevant point – namely that in Nordic literature, the magical, the supernatural and the surreal, possibly remnants of the storytelling of old, often lives side-by-side with a hyper-realist, naturalistic approach to fiction. And this, indeed, seems to be one of the main strands which binds the collection together.

Some of the stories are, in fact, explicitly “mythical” in conception. Thus 'The White-Bear King Valemon' by Linda Boström Knausgaard is an Angela-Carteresque retelling of a traditional fairy-tale whilst "The Man in the Boat" by Per Olov Enquist is, at face-value, an account of the drowning of a boy in a lake, recounted in a way which calls to mind both traditional ghost stories and pagan/Norse mythology (the dead being led away in a both). Other pieces are more surreal in nature – for instance the title story by Johan Bargum, featuring a man who starts to behave like (turn into?) a dog.

As the anthology progresses, the ‘realist’ genre starts to take over and we get to the really depressing stuff. Because living at the Northern edge of the world, especially within lonely island communities, seems to intensify social challenges. Certainly alcoholism, marriage breakdown, abuse and harassment of minorities (whether racial, sexual or otherwise diverse) are, unfortunately, problems which can be found in every continent. However, pieces San Francisco by Niviaq Korneliussen 'Zombieland' by Sørine Steenholdt and 'A World Apart' by Rosa Liksom, seem to suggest that such issues can be particular hurtful in the lonely, northern reaches of the world.

There’s much to enjoy and to discover in this book, especially since Sjón and Hodgkinson have featured several writers who, despite their domestic success, are as yet little-known on the international stage . Perhaps it is easier to “sense” than to “define” what makes their stories “Nordic”. Eventually, however, one starts to feel that despite the variety of style and subject-matter there seems to be a common soul to these tales. This collection should be experienced for this, if for nothing else.