Overall 3.75/5
Set in the Swedish Archipelago
Psychological thriller
Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist (translated by Marlaine Delargy) is set on the fictional island of Domarö, on the outer reaches of the Swedish Archipelago where tensions are high between the locals, mostly fishermen, and the visiting holidaymakers with their flatpack summer cottages. Anders is from Domarö and his wife is from Stockholm, where they live with their young daughter, Maja.
When Maja mysteriously vanishes on a family visit to Domarö, Anders life falls apart. Two years later, after separating from his wife, he returns to the island to find out what happened to Maja. Strange things are afoot on the island. Anders feels possessed by his daughter’s spirit; a woman thought dead years previous turns up dead but her body isn’t decayed; houses are burnt down apparently by the long-dead friends of Anders past; tension abounds.
The story is very much in the style of a Stephen King horror novel (e.g. The Outsider by Stephen King) and the prose is similarly evocative, such as when Anders and his Grandmother’s partner Simon are disposing of a body:
As the world continued to come adrift, dissolve and pour through him, he stood on the rock and watched his hands helping Simon to dress Elin’s body in plastic for this final journey. Then the perception grew weaker and he began to shiver.
At 500 pages it is a reasonably long book and is somewhat complicated in places by the many characters and back and forth in time. Nevertheless, it is beautifully written and strangely compelling, so highly recommended..
Running Chook Books 