The Murder of Halland
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2.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Denmark's foremost literary author turns crime fiction on its head, contemplating what happens when grief catches you off guard.
When Halland is found murdered almost right outside his door, his widow, Bess, is of course the prime suspect. She isn't worried about that, though, but about the daughter she abandoned years ago. As the police investigate, the slightly cantankerous Bess instead follows a trail of her own regrets and misapprehensions.
Atmospheric and haunted by the uncanny, The Murder of Halland is anything but your typical whodunnit. It won Denmark's most important literary prize, Den Danske Banks Litteraturpris, and its English translation was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Prize.
'Anything but a standard crime novel. The mystery at its heart is the mystery we are to each other.'
- The Economist
'The Murder of Halland ... is cooler and more calculated than any old Killing, and wrong-foots till it reveals the real mystery.'
- Ali Smith, author of How to Be Both
'Written with deft poetic precision, the compact scenes keep you turning pages breathlessly to get to the heart of the mystery and to the mystery of the narrator. The Murder of Halland is beautifully realized - an instant Nordic noir classic - and also beautifully translated by Martin Aitken.'
-Thomas E. Kennedy, author of The Copenhagen Quartet
'Juul’s novella is a spare, elegant jewel ... Terse and enigmatic, this novel is a classic to be savoured again and again.'
-Maclean's
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The first North American release of Juul's 2009 novel, which won Denmark's Danske Banks Litteraturpris, is long overdue. The story follows Bess, a deliciously selective narrator, in the wake of the death of her famed lover, Halland. His murder triggers a chain of events and discoveries, including the revealing of Halland's double life with his pregnant foster niece, Pernille, whose baby might be Halland's, and the restoration of Bess's relationship with her daughter. But the book's primary focus is on more existential revelations. Juul concerns herself principally with character, and her writing is sparse, ascetic, and exquisite, especially when she writes atmospheric passages or captures the novel's central ethos through Bess's love of TV police procedurals. Bess admits, "The puzzle attracted me the solution left me cold. Nothing like real life." Apropos, the book is intentionally without resolution; Halland's murder left unsolved, though readers have enough information to draw their own conclusions. But his death isn't the point; it's the catalyst for a beautifully wrought narrative about reclamation, letting go, and moving on. This Nordic murder mystery cum existential novel will appeal to fans of Banana Yoshimoto, Jedediah Berry, and Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt mysteries.
