Home ยป A strong and forceful debut. On starting this first novel by Jakob Melander I thought, oh my god, there really is a defined Scandinavian literary style: dark, really black perspective on what the world of opportunity holds. But I decided to persevere because I wanted to know who Detective Lars Winkler was and how the author was going to portray the city of Copenhagen. Garnett negotiates it all with amazing grace. I had to work at this novel. There are several story lines advancing simultaneously, and a couple of time periods.
It takes some sorting. There is a focus on prostitution, on the trading in young girls from Eastern Europe into Denmark. The conditions in which these women are kept is very disturbing. Today we live in a discordant world where people hate one another; murder each other based on religious belief.
The world lurches toward catastrophic climate change. And at the same time we are spawning more and more social deviants, the type Melander presents here. This is indeed a soul-wrenching story. The reader has to work at tracking the time and psychic lapses that occur with frequency within the text. One also has to work at the bleak nature of the Second World War portion of the story, and bring that up to time with modern Copenhagen and the atrocities still being committed.
But there is something about Detective Lars Winkler that is attractive, compelling. He is obsessed with his job. He breaks all the rules. His life is chaos, but he reminds me so much of some of my own past. For a debut novel, this work is incredibly strong and forceful. I will read more from Jakob Melander. The sound is almost cute from down here.
But there is also another sound. Something exploding, falling through the night sky. Screaming metal. She pulls the blanket all the way over her head, but no blanket will help tonight. The shrill screeching grows louder and louder.
