The ice

Brief presentation of The Ice (”Islossning”)

Fredrik and his 9-year old daughter Elin steps out on the ice in the Stockholm archipelago, one beautiful day in March 2003. After that they are disappeared. The inner circle of friends and family split their lives in to before and after. While Fredriks´s best friend Daniel fights with the question: why? The wife Iris is doing the best she can in trying to avoid: how? Elin´s best friend Anneli splits her name in two in order to try keep her still alive: AN+ELIN = ANNELI. Anneli´s mother Sofie wonders if the truth always sets you free, or if there can be true lies.

Everyone has their own scenario of what really happened that day on the ice. Iris, Daniel, Sofie and 9-year old Anneli each take their turn. The four of them tell the story of the lives of Fredik and Elin, how they were and what happened up to that day, on that actual day and thereafter. Iris wonders if their death can have anything to do with that night when she broke her vow of silence as a deacon for the Church of Sweden, telling her husband Fredrik of a man confessing his guilt in a crime years ago. She also wonders if maybe her marriage, like all others, simply have periods of ice age as well as thaw.

The Ice is a novel about both beautiful and ugly sorrow. But it is also about having the faith to love again, and if that is a sign of betrayal or simply courage.

Behind the scenes of ”The ice” (1997)

One of the most difficult novels I have ever written. Mostly because I had to get in to the novel´s sense of sorrow and grief, especially being Iris who lost her daughter and husband. What I practised working on in this novel was to go back and forth in time, and being four different caracters: each one in turn. When I ”was” the mother Iris I often felt pain in my body, sorrow is a more physical feeling than you might think. After that I got to ”rest” while being the daughter Elin´s best friend Anneli, which was a relief. An 11-year old has such a pragmatic view on life and asks all the right questions. It was lovely being her, and those were the easiest parts of the book to write (what does that say about me?!).

To try to write about all sorts of sorrow, the parts we don´t want to show in public and which is shameful, was a great challange for me. Not only as an author but mainly as a human being.