Praise
Elisabeth Rynell's language can only be described as breathtakingly beautiful.
Not a single false note rings in this sonata in minor.
Elisabeth Rynell is one of Sweden’s most intense and, for the lyrical clarity of her voice, most intensely appreciated storytellers in prose and verse. She never wastes words.
Since Rynell is also an accomplished poet, it isn’t surprising that To Mervas at times reads like a novel in verse, a fluctuating meditation on the nature of life and living, a wonderfully complex metaphor for trying and failing and trying again.
Although not including incest this time, E. Rynell’s graphic descriptions of wife-battering are as harrowing here as in Hohaj. Just as impelling are her beautifully lyrical descriptions of nature, sometimes the frightening, majestic sweep of a huge, desolate landscape, and sometimes a kind of primavera as Marta’s reawakening emotions are reflected in nature.
The only way to enjoy a novel like this was to slow my reading pace right down and savour it, and I constantly found myself re-reading snippets just for the pleasure of it.
Rynell proves a fearless writer in this emotionally relentless work and finds a lyrical grace in Marta’s self-awareness.
Extras
Watch an informal interview (in Swedish) with Elisabeth Rynell after she received the Eyvind Johnsonpriset in 2014.