I went for a walk with a friend this morning. It was fresh, and rather cold, so we went to a café for a coffee. On the way home, I passed by the Little Black Library, a street library where you can give and take a book. It was decorated for Christmas.
I found this wonderful little book.
Carina Burman (born 1960) is a Swedish novelist and literature scholar. Her research has been focused on Swedish 18th and 19th century literature. Burman's novels have historical motifs, often taking the form of a pastiche. Maybe you wonder what a pastiche is? I did.
"A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it."
I have read several of her books, and love them. I have another one, unread, on my shelves, about Carl Michael Bellman, a famous Swedish troubadour in the 18th century. That books is 637 pages long, with the appendixes over 100 pages.
Islandet - The Ice Country - takes place during the 19th century.
"During a grand Christmas celebration in the three days of 1799 at the Ransäter manor in Värmland's Bergslagen, the reader meets a broad-shouldered young man with one blue eye and one brown eye, who will soon marry a girl from his hometown who can make rye dough and pour candles. But Fate intervenes: pain, joy and strong emotions await.
It is the budding poet, historian and composer Erik Gustaf Geijer who has the one leading role in the romantic adventure which, much later, is depicted in an exchange of letters between a German baroness and a young Swedish writer. Time for a change of scene. Uppsala, the city of learning and youth, spring 1816. This is where everything happens.
It is here that Geijer meets the famously beautiful and witty Amalia von Helvig. Academic lectures and literary salons where famous contemporary figures appear: Malla Silfverstolpe and Atterbom among others. Ice removal and cheerful outings in the surroundings. And a stormy swearing, but also great sadness. Iceland is Amalia's story, told by her sister. It is a novel about memories and dreams, about Värmland and Uppsala, about how cold Sweden meets Europe." (Google translation from Swedish).
In the afternoon, I went to the nearby shopping mall for some errands and enjoyed their beautiful Christmas tree.
You can't really see the wonderful colours of the tree, so I add another photo that I took some years ago.
Slowly getting into the Christmas mood.
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