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Queen
Lose yourself in this tumultuous Swedish family saga, introduced by Sarah Moss ('a masterpiece')
In these parts, they called her Queen. And she was queen of rags, of sagging mouldering roofs, of nothing.
On a bleak, windswept farm on the coast of rural Sweden, where the misty white light is as 'mute as the blind milk of membrane around an extinguished eye', beneath the oppressive silence, the salt spray and the grind of daily farmwork, a passionate, yearning, unspoken human drama takes place.
At the centre of this story is Judit Lindgren, known as the 'Queen', strong as a whip, stately and stern. She holds her little realm tight, eking out a hard life, buttoning her emotions, dealing with the inadequacies of her menfolk, until the surprise arrival of a Polish widow from New York upends her carefully balanced world and offers the possibility of redemption.
'Fear, rage, love, the full range of human emotion is here . . . A story fuelled by inevitability and cold beauty.' Sarah Moss
In these parts, they called her Queen. And she was queen of rags, of sagging mouldering roofs, of nothing.
On a bleak, windswept farm on the coast of rural Sweden, where the misty white light is as 'mute as the blind milk of membrane around an extinguished eye', beneath the oppressive silence, the salt spray and the grind of daily farmwork, a passionate, yearning, unspoken human drama takes place.
At the centre of this story is Judit Lindgren, known as the 'Queen', strong as a whip, stately and stern. She holds her little realm tight, eking out a hard life, buttoning her emotions, dealing with the inadequacies of her menfolk, until the surprise arrival of a Polish widow from New York upends her carefully balanced world and offers the possibility of redemption.
'Fear, rage, love, the full range of human emotion is here . . . A story fuelled by inevitability and cold beauty.' Sarah Moss
153 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1964
18 people are currently reading
335 people want to read
About the author
Birgitta Trotzig
53 books25 followersBirgitta Trotzig was a Swedish writer who was elected to the Swedish Academy in 1993. She was one of Sweden's most celebrated authors, and wrote prose fiction and non-fiction, as well as prose poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 12, 2026
It will take me a while to put together my thoughts on this book. This is my kind of novel—moody, intense, bound to a harsh landscape. This is the story of a farm in Sweden, set in the late 1800s though the 1930s, with particular focus on three siblings. Judit is stern and responible (they call her the Queen), Albert is shy and sluggish, Viktor is restless and untamed. It is a novella that teems with sorrow and repressed emotion, and a greyness that carries its own haunting beauty. In her afterword, Norwegian writer Hanne Ørstavik tells how she came to know of Trotzig's work and how it saw her through a difficult transitional period in her own writing, ultimately allowing her to write "The Pastor." I could sense she was coming to that connection, one can see the influence. I am excited that Archipelago will be releasing at least three more of Trotzig's novels.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2026/03/11/an...
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2026/03/11/an...
December 9, 2025
One of the most poetic novels I’ve ever read, and a true literary masterpiece. One of the very best family sagas, complimented by a beautiful translation. Just exquisite.
March 3, 2026
This novella is centered around the Lindgren family, who owns the farm that is the furthest away from the center of town. The father, Johan, treats his wife and three children with varying degrees of affection and severity, while at the same time he opens his doors and offers assistance to impoverished passersby. Of the three children the most important is Judit, the oldest of the Lundgren children, who is widely known throughout the village as Queen, as she becomes the center of the family structure and takes on more responsibility than anyone else, despite her youth, especially after the traumatic birth of her youngest brother Viktor. She is stern but loving towards her middle brother Andrew and Viktor, and she takes on ever more responsibility for the household as a result of her parents’ declining health and her brothers’ unwillingness or inability to help with the maintenance of the farm. Viktor becomes progressively more distant from the family, despite the attention that Judit bestows on him,
During the early years of the 20th century farming in the village becomes more difficult, and Viktor joins other young people in Sweden in being drawn to the allure of the United States. He soon finds out that there are thousands of similar immigrants to America, most of whom engage in a near constant struggle to survive. He manages to get by due to a series of odd jobs, although barely. Meanwhile the Queen and her affected brother Albert also struggle to earning a living from working on the farm, as they grow concerned about the lack of communication from Viktor.
Without giving away too much more about this excellent story I was very taken with “Queen,” and Trotzig’s descriptions of the Lundgren family, especially Judit/Queen. The language is both spare and rich, with nary a wasted word. The characters are unforgettable, especially Johan and Judit, due to their often raw emotions as they attempt to maintain control of the farm and the members of the family. I’m glad that Archipelago Books published this book, and I eagerly await more translated works by Birgitta Trotzig.
During the early years of the 20th century farming in the village becomes more difficult, and Viktor joins other young people in Sweden in being drawn to the allure of the United States. He soon finds out that there are thousands of similar immigrants to America, most of whom engage in a near constant struggle to survive. He manages to get by due to a series of odd jobs, although barely. Meanwhile the Queen and her affected brother Albert also struggle to earning a living from working on the farm, as they grow concerned about the lack of communication from Viktor.
Without giving away too much more about this excellent story I was very taken with “Queen,” and Trotzig’s descriptions of the Lundgren family, especially Judit/Queen. The language is both spare and rich, with nary a wasted word. The characters are unforgettable, especially Johan and Judit, due to their often raw emotions as they attempt to maintain control of the farm and the members of the family. I’m glad that Archipelago Books published this book, and I eagerly await more translated works by Birgitta Trotzig.
March 10, 2026
I was kindly sent a free, uncorrected proof copy by the publishers in exchange for an honest review. This was very well written and the vivid descriptions of rural Sweden were particularly poetic. I would probably summarise this novella as a haunting and dark poetical examination of the complexities of families. I loved the exploration of the passage of time and the changing of the seasons - that was particularly well done. What let this down for me was that, unfortunately, I did not really warm to any of the three siblings that the story centres on. They were all very strange and depressing characters and the book itself is very cold and weirdly soulless. It’s obviously intended as a very short, sharp read and I did fly through it, but it was a bit too multi-faceted for me and I was just left feeling really gloomy and sad by the end and that I’d completely missed the point that the author was trying to make. I’ve gone 3 stars because of the literary quality of the writing but otherwise not really my cup of tea sadly.
March 3, 2026
One of the most unique styles of prose I’ve come across. Not difficult to understand at all, only just captivating.
March 8, 2026
Queen is a bleak short work about a family in Sweden in between the two world wars. The author's writing style is difficult and sparse, and much of the desolate tale is left for the reader to interpret.
March 8, 2026
Well, this was very bleak.
I have read some bleak books in the past, I had a long phase reading Zola; Nana, Therese Raquin, La Bete Humaine, The Earth, Germinal. They were all very bleak, but they have nothing on this latest Faber Edition set in Southern Sweden in the 1930s.
This began with so much promise as it drew the reader into the landscape of southern Sweden close to the Baltic Sea:
But even here, in a simple description of the landscape, there lurks an undertone of darkness – the gray sea is sick – the white blind milk of membrane around an extinguished eye. All this hints at the bleakness to come.
Queen is essentially a family saga – a farming family who have three children. The first is a girl, Judit, the second a boy, Albert, who is slow and simple, and the third, much later is Viktor. So much later that when their mother goes into decline after the birth, it is Judit who cares for the child, nurses him and raises him. It is Judit that becomes known as Queen, for her attitude and her hardness and the way she has to take everything upon her own shoulders. It is as if there is no one who can fully help her as both her parents pass and she is left to care for the farm and her brothers. It is the others of the village who call her Queen, and sometime in a quiet moment she longs to just be Judit, and not the hard person she has been forced to become.
What follows is a litany of disasters and hardships. Eventually Viktor leaves the farm, having fathered children with various young women in the district, which Judit has to put right. He does his national service and then he leaves for America where his fortunes are even worse. It is 1930 and the era of the great depression. In New York he meets a young Polish woman and they share a hovel of a room, making do with almost nothing. Eventually they marry, but soon after a huge fire burns their home to the ground and Victor is killed. The widow is sent to Sweden, her husband’s home, which she has never seen and where she does not speak the language.
This is the letter that is referred to in the first page. But it is a hundred pages later in the book when we finally catch up with these events. Things become worse when the woman arrives – the bleakness intensifies, if that were possible.
I have glossed over much of the despair and sadness in the intervening years.
Probably the least enjoyable of the Faber Editions I have read so far. Love the cover, just not the content.
I have read some bleak books in the past, I had a long phase reading Zola; Nana, Therese Raquin, La Bete Humaine, The Earth, Germinal. They were all very bleak, but they have nothing on this latest Faber Edition set in Southern Sweden in the 1930s.
This began with so much promise as it drew the reader into the landscape of southern Sweden close to the Baltic Sea:
To a farm in Bäck in Ljungby parish in eastern Skåne there came on day a letter announcing that a widow from America was on her way at the expense of the American government. She came across the Atlantic. Her destination was one of the villages north of the Landö lighthouse on Skåne’s east coast, of the sort where the courtyard farmhouses’ great barn doors face the coastal wetlands. In the summer the doors are for the most part left open and one can look right through the barn, as if it were a massive gateway, upon the pastures and the sea – the still gray sea beneath the white sky gives off a light like nothing else in this world; mild, sick; a misty white light, as mute as the blind milk of membrane around an extinguished eye; in this silent white light rest meadows so green, and the sound of steps or hoofbeats vanish without echo in the soft green sward, there reigns the silence, the birds, the scent of grass, the scent of broom, and between the people too a membrane-like silence: the white soft light upon the meadows, between the buildings, inside the buildings – words drown, the fate of the word is to drown is it not?
But even here, in a simple description of the landscape, there lurks an undertone of darkness – the gray sea is sick – the white blind milk of membrane around an extinguished eye. All this hints at the bleakness to come.
Queen is essentially a family saga – a farming family who have three children. The first is a girl, Judit, the second a boy, Albert, who is slow and simple, and the third, much later is Viktor. So much later that when their mother goes into decline after the birth, it is Judit who cares for the child, nurses him and raises him. It is Judit that becomes known as Queen, for her attitude and her hardness and the way she has to take everything upon her own shoulders. It is as if there is no one who can fully help her as both her parents pass and she is left to care for the farm and her brothers. It is the others of the village who call her Queen, and sometime in a quiet moment she longs to just be Judit, and not the hard person she has been forced to become.
What follows is a litany of disasters and hardships. Eventually Viktor leaves the farm, having fathered children with various young women in the district, which Judit has to put right. He does his national service and then he leaves for America where his fortunes are even worse. It is 1930 and the era of the great depression. In New York he meets a young Polish woman and they share a hovel of a room, making do with almost nothing. Eventually they marry, but soon after a huge fire burns their home to the ground and Victor is killed. The widow is sent to Sweden, her husband’s home, which she has never seen and where she does not speak the language.
This is the letter that is referred to in the first page. But it is a hundred pages later in the book when we finally catch up with these events. Things become worse when the woman arrives – the bleakness intensifies, if that were possible.
I have glossed over much of the despair and sadness in the intervening years.
Probably the least enjoyable of the Faber Editions I have read so far. Love the cover, just not the content.
Review of advance copy
4.5 Stars out of 5
I received an early copy as part of Archipelago Books' subscription service.
Birgitta Trotzig's Queen tells the story of an unusual family living on a slowly decaying farm in the south of Sweden. I won't delve into the plot in more depth here; instead, I will focus on Trotzig's style.
On the back cover is a blurb from Eva Ström: "Reading Birgitta Trotzig is like walking into a dark cathedral. At first it's just dark, but after a while the eyes adjust, and you begin to make out the colors."
I agree, except I'd qualify this as follows: Reading Birgitta Trotzig is like walking into a dark cathedral. At first it's just dark, but after a while the eyes adjust, and you begin to make out the colors, but then the cathedral continues to dim and brighten, causing your eyes to continually adjust and re-adjust.
As another review here noted, reading Trotzig is at times like Faulkner. In my view this Faulkner-like power comes not from mere imitation but arises organically from Trotzig's writing itself. Yet she never sustains this style for long stretches. Her style is too varied to be comfortably placed in the camp of Faulkner imitators. At times it is poetic, awkward (more on this later), laconic, even verbose. It's hard to ever feel fully on solid ground: you must continually adjust and re-adjust.
As for the awkwardness, much of this seems intentional, and it works. Her characters are often awkward and maladjusted, and this seems to seep into Trotzig's writing itself.
However, recent Archipelago Books publications have been prone to typos and errors, often in small ways but not always. In their recent edition of A Parish Chronicle (which I loved) there are some egregious errors with speech missing the closing quotation marks and parts that are clearly the narrator's voice, not a character's, being included in a character's speech. A few instances in Queen were so awkward I wondered whether these reflected similar editorial oversights.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which is the first English translation of Trotzig's work. I hope Archipelago Books has plans to publish more of her work in the future. I look forward to discovering if her other novels have a similar style to Queen, or whether Trotzig explores entirely different stylistic registers.
I received an early copy as part of Archipelago Books' subscription service.
Birgitta Trotzig's Queen tells the story of an unusual family living on a slowly decaying farm in the south of Sweden. I won't delve into the plot in more depth here; instead, I will focus on Trotzig's style.
On the back cover is a blurb from Eva Ström: "Reading Birgitta Trotzig is like walking into a dark cathedral. At first it's just dark, but after a while the eyes adjust, and you begin to make out the colors."
I agree, except I'd qualify this as follows: Reading Birgitta Trotzig is like walking into a dark cathedral. At first it's just dark, but after a while the eyes adjust, and you begin to make out the colors, but then the cathedral continues to dim and brighten, causing your eyes to continually adjust and re-adjust.
As another review here noted, reading Trotzig is at times like Faulkner. In my view this Faulkner-like power comes not from mere imitation but arises organically from Trotzig's writing itself. Yet she never sustains this style for long stretches. Her style is too varied to be comfortably placed in the camp of Faulkner imitators. At times it is poetic, awkward (more on this later), laconic, even verbose. It's hard to ever feel fully on solid ground: you must continually adjust and re-adjust.
As for the awkwardness, much of this seems intentional, and it works. Her characters are often awkward and maladjusted, and this seems to seep into Trotzig's writing itself.
However, recent Archipelago Books publications have been prone to typos and errors, often in small ways but not always. In their recent edition of A Parish Chronicle (which I loved) there are some egregious errors with speech missing the closing quotation marks and parts that are clearly the narrator's voice, not a character's, being included in a character's speech. A few instances in Queen were so awkward I wondered whether these reflected similar editorial oversights.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which is the first English translation of Trotzig's work. I hope Archipelago Books has plans to publish more of her work in the future. I look forward to discovering if her other novels have a similar style to Queen, or whether Trotzig explores entirely different stylistic registers.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Dabbling in manifestation: as I say it, here it is, maybe actually the closest I’ve seen any author come to Lispector for a startling phrase. Closer still to Faulkner, tumbling as a dream into the felling of a house, self-made and self-sabotaged, poison in the well. But hope! through this hard sticky melancholia, hope like *East of Eden* — all not lost even as the slow constancy of the land betrays vast tectonic displacements. This is just the hard shell drifting above the core, after all. Merely the mask eroding, nothing of real truth and good.
I love Archipelago Books. Joy to find this on my porch nearly a month ahead of release. Not certain how the Scandinavians snuck their way into my reading habits over this last year, but immensely grateful they have. Balle, Fosse, Ørstavik, Jessen on a good day, and now Trotzig — what an intensely demanding canon, and I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface. Wonderful.
I love Archipelago Books. Joy to find this on my porch nearly a month ahead of release. Not certain how the Scandinavians snuck their way into my reading habits over this last year, but immensely grateful they have. Balle, Fosse, Ørstavik, Jessen on a good day, and now Trotzig — what an intensely demanding canon, and I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface. Wonderful.
March 1, 2026
I was kindly sent this novella by @faberbooks and this is a book that will stay with me for a long time after reading it.
It is haunting, dark, emotional and unforgiving. Queen spans about 50 years straddling the turn of the 20th century and is set mainly on an isolated farm in Bäck. The book tells the story of three siblings, Judit (Queen), Albert and Viktor. Their mother has a difficult time during the birth of Viktor and never truly recovers her health. Their father is a bleak and frustrated figure. The farm is in financial difficulties and he takes his feelings of despair and inadequacy out on his children.
We learn how the children all cope differently with the impact of their mother's poor health and their father's violence. Albert, withdraws into his own head, Viktor is rebellious, turning to fighting and drinking, but Judit seeks out power and control over others that carries with her from childhood and throughout her life...and becomes Queen! She rebels against her father's shortcomings. She works harder than anyone around her but is unable to put a limit on things.
The story is gently told, but we learn about all the incredibly harsh and darkness of ordinary life in this islolated backdrop. The writing is stylistic and almost textural. There's a darkness and bitterness to the words that mirrors the characters in the book.
We see the siblings as they become adults. Queen wants to fully reign over her brothers and her surroundings. Albert is meek and insular. But Viktor cannot be controlled and seeks a life in the USA. However, life changes forever on the farm with the arrival of a Polish widow and we see how this stranger has an impact on Albert and Queen.
The narrative throughout the book is organic, rolling back and forward covering the story of the siblings. It asks questions about poverty, humanity, control, fear and manipulation. It is a complex and layered story that I found compelling and incredible.
It is haunting, dark, emotional and unforgiving. Queen spans about 50 years straddling the turn of the 20th century and is set mainly on an isolated farm in Bäck. The book tells the story of three siblings, Judit (Queen), Albert and Viktor. Their mother has a difficult time during the birth of Viktor and never truly recovers her health. Their father is a bleak and frustrated figure. The farm is in financial difficulties and he takes his feelings of despair and inadequacy out on his children.
We learn how the children all cope differently with the impact of their mother's poor health and their father's violence. Albert, withdraws into his own head, Viktor is rebellious, turning to fighting and drinking, but Judit seeks out power and control over others that carries with her from childhood and throughout her life...and becomes Queen! She rebels against her father's shortcomings. She works harder than anyone around her but is unable to put a limit on things.
The story is gently told, but we learn about all the incredibly harsh and darkness of ordinary life in this islolated backdrop. The writing is stylistic and almost textural. There's a darkness and bitterness to the words that mirrors the characters in the book.
We see the siblings as they become adults. Queen wants to fully reign over her brothers and her surroundings. Albert is meek and insular. But Viktor cannot be controlled and seeks a life in the USA. However, life changes forever on the farm with the arrival of a Polish widow and we see how this stranger has an impact on Albert and Queen.
The narrative throughout the book is organic, rolling back and forward covering the story of the siblings. It asks questions about poverty, humanity, control, fear and manipulation. It is a complex and layered story that I found compelling and incredible.
March 12, 2026
Recently translated from the Swedish, this book was originally published in 1964. The narrator, Judit, lives on a farm with her two brothers in rural Sweden, close to the coast. Judit, also known as The Queen, because of her uncompromising character, is not a particularly sympathetic character, but the reader can admire her strength. And when her favourite brother moves to America, her life changes forever.
March 14, 2026
an older sibling who has to raise the youngest like their own? you got me. yes, i cried.
the writing in this is also so beautiful and i wish i could
write like that. i’d be unstoppable.
the writing in this is also so beautiful and i wish i could
write like that. i’d be unstoppable.
March 8, 2026
2.5* incredibly dense
February 23, 2026
I was kindly sent this beautiful edition by @faberbooks and I cannot begin to articulate how hauntingly entrancing this book was to read.
Set across seasons of both a family and of time, the writing makes what could be considered a simple plot, a piece of pure poetry.
Judith as a character, otherwise known as Queen - the namesake of the novel, was so complex to follow and explore as she navigated her life with and without family, and herself within.
Don’t be fooled by the assumed idealic Swedish setting, for it is written through the most gorgeous, dark and somewhat gothic lense. The scenery throughout is almost tangible, from the rural farm and house to the cliffs and land surrounding.
Read for the conflict, the characters and the divinity of it all.
February 14, 2026
This was incredibly bleak, dark and brutal, but also very moving and absolutely beautifully written.
It is set in rural Sweden (and briefly in New York) in the first three decades of the twentieth century. The way the passage of time and the changing seasons is portrayed as cyclical and inevitable is stunning.
The three siblings at the heart of the story - Judit (aka Queen), Albert and Viktor - are all strange and troubled in their own ways. Viktor’s Polish widow from New York is also very depressed, especially after the birth of her baby.
The writing was so poetic. Descriptions of the scents and sounds of earth and sea were divine. I loved it.
It is set in rural Sweden (and briefly in New York) in the first three decades of the twentieth century. The way the passage of time and the changing seasons is portrayed as cyclical and inevitable is stunning.
The three siblings at the heart of the story - Judit (aka Queen), Albert and Viktor - are all strange and troubled in their own ways. Viktor’s Polish widow from New York is also very depressed, especially after the birth of her baby.
The writing was so poetic. Descriptions of the scents and sounds of earth and sea were divine. I loved it.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews