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Jawin (Australia) (2010/10/09):
The story is set in the far northern forests of Sweden and centres on the vicious murder, in the late 1960s, of two foreign tourists. Around this crime, Ekman weaves a tale involving the brutalities of rural life, the commune-based radicalism that was so fashionable in Scandinavia at that time, environmental destruction and - most interestingly - a disturbing racism that seems to lurk within Swedish society. Kerstin Ekman has clearly spent a long time honing the skills of plotting, but the book delivers much more: powerful ideas about education, memory and politics, and a profound, passionate evocation of nature. Kerstin Ekman is one of the few contemporary Swedish writers to have become known internationally. I came to Blackwater having read The Forest of Hours, a magnificent historical novel. And I came to that book by chance. She is, for me, a wonderful discovery. We need more of her books in English.
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