Astrid and Veronika at Mary's House

Our August book was Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson. This book takes place in Sweden and New Zealand, and our search for restaurants that served these cuisines failed. Apparently there's a Scandinavian restaurant in Chicago, but that's a little out of the way. I suggested IHOP (some people complained about the lack of wine) because pancakes appear in the novel. The service was lackadaisical to say the least, but the food was satisfying. Especially the boysenberry pancakes. When we arrived at the meeting, we were greeted by Joanne's angel food cake with white icing, blueberries and strawberries.

We all liked the book. We agreed that it was difficult to understand why Astrid killed Sara, her child. Was it because she feared Sara would be sexually abused by her father as Astrid had been by hers? Was it to get back at her husband? doubtful. Or was it because she didn't want to see her daughter face life as a a girl and woman?

We disagreed about how Astrid died--did she kill herself or did she die a natural death? I had never thought of suicide but was generally outvoted. Well, her death was neatly timed, but can't that happen in a novel?

There are so many parallels in this novel: both women lost their mother when young, both lost their true love, both lost babies, both are independent.

I just thought of a foreshadowing of Sara's death. Astrid asks her young lover to kill a baby owl that has fallen out of his nest because he doesn't believe that the owl can survive.

Anyway, lots to talk about with this book. The discussion questions in the back aren't bad either which is a pleasant change.

Linda Olsson has a nice blog at http://www.lindaolsson.net