Collected Works

  

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Collected Works 

Author: Lydia Sandgren 

Publisher: Astra House

Release Date: 1.31.23

Publisher’s Summary 

High Fidelity meets Where'd You Go Bernadette in this Swedish runaway bestseller, a work of pure literary nostalgia for times just past.

Several years after the disappearance of his wife Cecilia, Martin Berg is tumbling into a life crisis. The owner of an ailing Swedish publishing house, he's left wondering what could have been.

Meanwhile, Martin's old and much more remarkable friend, the artist Gustav Becker, is visiting Gothenburg, plastering billboards across the city that feature the eyes of his greatest muse, Cecilia Berg.

Feeling out of place and restless in the city, Martin's daughter Rakel finds a possible clue to her mother's fate and her world begins to unravel.

A family saga of several generations, Collected Works is a story about enduring love, absence, friendship, and art in the intersection of truth and fiction.

My Review

Despite the title, this is not a collection of works. At just shy of 600 pages, this translated debut novel spans decades and immerses the reader in the lives of Martin, his best friend Gustav, and his future wife Cecilia from their university/post-university years through today. When Martin, now a publisher, asks his daughter to review a translated work for possible publication, Rakel stumbles upon a thread that may lead her to answers about her mother's disappearance. 

I took so many notes throughout my reading in an attempt to properly review this masterpiece but I know I will not be able to do it justice so I'm just going to ramble on for a bit. I loved tagging along with Martin and Gustav as they partied, studied, and discussed art. I loved peering into Cecilia's mind to explore her passion for psychological and philosophical theories, applications, and translations. I loved dropping in to have "a Paris year" in 1986, experience the art market in the late eighties, vacation at family summer homes, and live in cramped artists' apartments. I loved laughing at their obliviousness when they thought that children wouldn't change their lives. "He could rock his baby’s stroller with one foot while he read manuscripts" quickly morphs into "back then, life had fit around his writing, not the other way around." 

As the carefree days of their youth become more distant, the characters accept the reality that "a person’s life is finite from the start, everything that happens does so at the expense of something else." One person accepts this change with what seems to be nothing more than a sigh, while the other two dig in their heels to take their own paths. While this novel is full of Swedish cultural references that might not be fully appreciated by American readers it is perfect for readers who love stories set at universities, coming-of-age stories, stories about art and artists, and stories about the all-consuming aspects of parenthood. 

I also have to include this gem of an ode to reading:

 

"Reading gives you access to worlds other than your own. You can test out being an adulterous Russian noblewoman or an alcoholic mailman who frequents prostitutes. You can tag along on an outrageous road trip across North America. You can be anyone."

Lydia Sandgren (b. 1987) is the eldest of seven siblings brought up in the west of Sweden. She has studied music and philosophy, and is a practicing psychologist today, living in Gothenburg, Sweden. Collected Works is her debut novel.