Book Review: Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson Review by Aleda Littlefield

This small book could be seen as a story about re-demption of two lonely souls who talk about their past lives and how they come to find closure with their past events by finding friendship and solace with the other.

Astrid, an elderly lady, lives as a recluse in a tiny village in Sweden. She has nothing to do with the villagers and some consider her a witch. She had an unhappy past and has chosen to isolate herself. A young woman, Veronika Russ, moves into a small house next-door. Astrid watches her surreptitiously. Veronica moved there to try and finish writing her second novel and to recover from the grief of her fiancé’s death by moving as far away as possible from New Zealand.

This is a story of two women of vastly different ages - Astrid is eighty years old and Veronika is thirty years old – who are burdened with loss, grief, and secrets. Soon they begin to interact. At first neither could know how much to trust the other and what confidences could conceivably be shared. They start a tentative friendship and begin to share meals, enjoy classical music and drink wine. Astrid begins to share her painful childhood memories and loss of a boyfriend and an unloving marriage and a cataclysmic event in her early life. Veronika also shares her childhood memories and the death of her fiancé. Sad memories from each woman but the sharing of these stories helps them to come to closure with these events.

Astrid &Veronika was a small and interesting book with a Swedish setting and about two Swedish women coming to terms with their past. It is an easy read and most reviewers from seller-websites (Amazon, Goodreads) found the story enjoyable and rated it highly. If you’re looking for a quick summer read, this might be worth considering. It is available from Barnes and Nobel for order ($16 USD) but not available at the County Library.

Linda Olsson is from Stockholm but lives in New Zealand.