I Am Behind You
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Four families wake up one morning in their caravans, next to their cars, on an ordinary campsite in southern Sweden. However, during the night something strange has happened. Everything else has disappeared, and the world has been transformed into an endless expanse of grass. The sky is blue, but there is no sign of the sun; there are no trees, no flowers, no birds. And every radio plays nothing but the songs of sixties pop icon Peter Himmelstrand.
As the holiday-makers try to come to terms with what has happened, they are forced to confront their deepest fears and secret desires, and in many cases expose the less appealing aspects of their character. Past events that they have tried to bury rise to the surface and take on a terrifying physical form.
Can any of them find a way back to reality?
I Am Behind You is a compelling, eerie new novel from the internationally bestselling author of Let the Right One In.
John Ajvide Lindqvist lives in Sweden. His first novel, Let the Right One In, was published in thirty countries and adapted into two feature films. His novels Handling the Undead, Harbour and Little Star are also published by Text Publishing.
‘As imaginative and brilliant as any of [Stephen] King’s famous stories…Eerie and compelling.’ Canberra Weekly
‘A genuine skin-crawler of a book.’ Otago Daily Times
‘Every character—even the animals—is finely drawn in a surreal tale that is simply extraordinary.’ Courier-Mail
‘[Lindqvist’s] talent for psychological horror takes a new twist in his latest novel…A slow-burner with a few intense thrills up its sleeve.’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘Things end badly, with throat-cutting, melting flesh and a gruesome motoring accident, all timed impeccably and reported with unblinking clarity.’ NZ Listener
‘Simply delicious…Lindqvist’s talent in exposing the truer nature of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances is evident once again…Dive in and question it yourself!’ AustCrime
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Four families and their vacation caravans are somehow transported into a seemingly endless grassy meadow in Lindqvist's ambitious and frustrating novel of cosmic horror, the first of a projected trilogy. Their world now includes a bright sky, no sun, a lot of grass, three married couples of various degrees of happiness, two friends who are inching toward romance, two children, one cat, one dog, and whatever was in the caravans when they arrived. GPS maps show them in places they cannot possibly be, such as on roads that ceased to exist years ago. The radio works, but plays only songs written by Peter Himmelstrand, a real-life 1960s Swedish pop star. (In Sweden, the title of the novel is Himmelstrand.) Unsurprisingly, tensions in the group are high, especially since unpleasant, elderly Donald has a gun, and Molly, one of the children, is a budding psychopath. The characters, the group dynamics, and the unfolding mystery of what's going on and why are well-depicted and engrossing, but the ending peters out in a futile attempt to remain emotionally satisfying while still leaving most events unexplained. A future book may shed more light, but the first installment makes it difficult to maintain enough investment in the story to want more of it.
