Three questions to
Håkan Östlundh

Who is Sara?
Sara is a 34-year-old screenwriter with a shaky career in the shadow of her successful brother and a instable, as yet childless, marriage to the journalist John. After her mother's funeral (a mother she has not seen in 25 years), she is left with her mother's notebooks. To read them will force her to confront a shocking year in childhood that changed the lives of everyone in the family. But actually, it is of course I who am Sara.
 
How did you get the idea for this book?
After writing seven novels about detective police Fredrik Broman on Gotland, I realized that a persistently recurring theme in my books was the dysfunctional family. I felt it was time to write about my own family drama. In order to do that I had to look within myself.
 
Family secrets is a frequently used theme in novels. Why is it such dynamite?
We all have family secrets, big or small, therefore such stories set things off in us. They touch something in our innermost that were formed early in life. I notice this in the many reader responses already flowing into my mail box. We never get pass the families we grew up with. Even when we are middle-aged and have lived for a long time in a completely different family constellation, the family we grew up in is present in the background, whether we like it or not, whether we love it or hate it. Therefore, this book is dedicated to "My families".

Words from the agent

Family secrets, family dramas. Such an explosive theme. When Håkan Östlundh decided to open the package he had received after his mother’s dead, he knew he was in for an emotional and painful roller coaster trip. Yet he dared to do it. I am so thankful he did, because the book that his journey resulted in is a beautiful story about growing up and about dealing with dark memories. And it’s about the process of healing. Read it.
 
Lena Stjernström
Grand Agency



Author photo: Martin Stenmark
Agent photo: Jesper Anhede