What do you think?
Rate this book
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
About the author
Birgitta Trotzig
53 books29 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
Read
August 6, 2026I need all my litfic/translated/short book lovers to go pick up this book IMMEDIATELY. Truly such a refreshing and surprising read! I picked this up randomly in Sweden a few months back because I wanted a book by a Swedish author and this had just come out--it's the first time this author, who apparently is VERY big in Sweden, has been translated into English. Needless to say, I will read whatever else of hers gets translated in the future!!
This is a book that's very hard to describe because there's the surface of the novel, and then there's everything else the novel is REALLY about. It's about a girl named Judit, born in the late 1800s in rural Sweden, who gains the nickname 'Queen' because, against her will, she's left to essentially raise her younger brothers and make sure everything operates smoothly on their farm. She ends up wearing this moniker as a sort of mask that ultimately shrouds her in this identity that both protects but traps her in a role that she never really asked for. And then, in later life, as so many of us are, she's trapped in this sort of persona that developed out of her unfortunate childhood and finds it very difficult to be her true self. Along with Judit, we also get to meet her younger siblings, Albert and Viktor, and see how these three siblings respond all very differently to their upbringing.
Trotzig's writing, however, is the real star here. If you like lyrical, emotional, rich, layered writing--where images and symbols stand for characters' emotional states, where repetition almost like poetry gives the story this almost fairytale-like quality, then you'll love this. It's the kind of writing where you could spend 5 minutes reading a single page if you want, reading lines again and again, excavating the different descriptions for deeper meanings. But you could also sit down and read this 140 page book in one sitting, one giant gulp that will likely emotionally wreck you. And then go back and read it all again.
So yeah, I loved this. I was delighted, surprised, disturbed and moved by this story. This tragic tale of loneliness, silence, the sea. A book that examines the trap of poverty, the cycles of family trauma, and the ways in which fight our fates and succeed or fail at bringing about effective change depending on our circumstances.
This is a book that's very hard to describe because there's the surface of the novel, and then there's everything else the novel is REALLY about. It's about a girl named Judit, born in the late 1800s in rural Sweden, who gains the nickname 'Queen' because, against her will, she's left to essentially raise her younger brothers and make sure everything operates smoothly on their farm. She ends up wearing this moniker as a sort of mask that ultimately shrouds her in this identity that both protects but traps her in a role that she never really asked for. And then, in later life, as so many of us are, she's trapped in this sort of persona that developed out of her unfortunate childhood and finds it very difficult to be her true self. Along with Judit, we also get to meet her younger siblings, Albert and Viktor, and see how these three siblings respond all very differently to their upbringing.
Trotzig's writing, however, is the real star here. If you like lyrical, emotional, rich, layered writing--where images and symbols stand for characters' emotional states, where repetition almost like poetry gives the story this almost fairytale-like quality, then you'll love this. It's the kind of writing where you could spend 5 minutes reading a single page if you want, reading lines again and again, excavating the different descriptions for deeper meanings. But you could also sit down and read this 140 page book in one sitting, one giant gulp that will likely emotionally wreck you. And then go back and read it all again.
So yeah, I loved this. I was delighted, surprised, disturbed and moved by this story. This tragic tale of loneliness, silence, the sea. A book that examines the trap of poverty, the cycles of family trauma, and the ways in which fight our fates and succeed or fail at bringing about effective change depending on our circumstances.
May 4, 2026
Reading this was like gazing into someone’s mind as they were dreaming. It was very strange, ethereal, and relentlessly curious. I’m not sure I’ve read anything quite like it before. There was something haunting about it, like looking out the window at night and watching a ghostly figure walk across a field. I dunno, it’s hard to describe.
Anyway, the story is as basic as it gets and concerns a young Swedish family living in a small village, mother, father, daughter, and two sons. Judit and Albert are close in age, but a few years later comes Vicktor whose presence seems to disrupt everything. Firstly, the mother instantly dissolves from the story, seemingly uninterested in her most recent child, and the father appears to be openly hostile towards little Viktor. As such Judit becomes the primary carer, ostensibly the child’s de-facto mother which, in turn, results in her nickname Queen. She is forced to grow up quickly. As the years go by, Albert becomes more reserved and solitary while Viktor is passionate and hot headed. As he becomes a young adult, he flirts with many girls (and apparently impregnates a few of them) before leaving altogether for a new life in America. Here he works in menial jobs then meets and marries a Polish woman before eventually dying in a fire. The Polish woman is deported to Sweden and she arrives there almost like a small piece of Vicktor has returned. She eventually ends up in a relationship with Albert.
Honestly, none of this is very important, because the whole thing feels like a bleak ghost story from a forgotten time, a dark fairytale full of hardship, sorrow, and regret. It is further aided in this endeavour by Trotzig’s poetic language and free flowing prose, a series of omniscient third person perspectives which are curious and aloof, like a winter breeze through long grass. The whole thing is just very sad, beautiful, strange, haunting.
As I was reading, I came up with a theory. People are free to dismiss this as nonsense given how open the text is to interpretation, but this feeling arrived fairly early in the narrative and has some evidence to back it up. Predominantly, in the shape of the mother and father’s reaction to Viktor’s arrival, specifically how the mother essentially fades from the narrative altogether after Viktor’s birth, and how the father is immediately hostile to him. At first, I thought it was because the mother might have had an affair, causing the husband’s irritation, but later I started contemplating a much darker possibility, that maybe Judit became a mother to Viktor so passionately precisely because that’s exactly what she was – his mother. Then, the idea of an incestuous relationship between father and daughter occurred, adding weight to the overall atmosphere of isolation and sorrow, and justifying the mother’s sudden disappearance from the story. I don't know, I could be completely wrong, but the book was certainly unique, occasionally beautiful, occasionally maddening. As I said, it's like a dream, a strange dream, ghostly, remote, and somewhat misremembered.
Anyway, the story is as basic as it gets and concerns a young Swedish family living in a small village, mother, father, daughter, and two sons. Judit and Albert are close in age, but a few years later comes Vicktor whose presence seems to disrupt everything. Firstly, the mother instantly dissolves from the story, seemingly uninterested in her most recent child, and the father appears to be openly hostile towards little Viktor. As such Judit becomes the primary carer, ostensibly the child’s de-facto mother which, in turn, results in her nickname Queen. She is forced to grow up quickly. As the years go by, Albert becomes more reserved and solitary while Viktor is passionate and hot headed. As he becomes a young adult, he flirts with many girls (and apparently impregnates a few of them) before leaving altogether for a new life in America. Here he works in menial jobs then meets and marries a Polish woman before eventually dying in a fire. The Polish woman is deported to Sweden and she arrives there almost like a small piece of Vicktor has returned. She eventually ends up in a relationship with Albert.
Honestly, none of this is very important, because the whole thing feels like a bleak ghost story from a forgotten time, a dark fairytale full of hardship, sorrow, and regret. It is further aided in this endeavour by Trotzig’s poetic language and free flowing prose, a series of omniscient third person perspectives which are curious and aloof, like a winter breeze through long grass. The whole thing is just very sad, beautiful, strange, haunting.
As I was reading, I came up with a theory. People are free to dismiss this as nonsense given how open the text is to interpretation, but this feeling arrived fairly early in the narrative and has some evidence to back it up. Predominantly, in the shape of the mother and father’s reaction to Viktor’s arrival, specifically how the mother essentially fades from the narrative altogether after Viktor’s birth, and how the father is immediately hostile to him. At first, I thought it was because the mother might have had an affair, causing the husband’s irritation, but later I started contemplating a much darker possibility, that maybe Judit became a mother to Viktor so passionately precisely because that’s exactly what she was – his mother. Then, the idea of an incestuous relationship between father and daughter occurred, adding weight to the overall atmosphere of isolation and sorrow, and justifying the mother’s sudden disappearance from the story. I don't know, I could be completely wrong, but the book was certainly unique, occasionally beautiful, occasionally maddening. As I said, it's like a dream, a strange dream, ghostly, remote, and somewhat misremembered.
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 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 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.
Read
August 19, 2026queen is a cold, small view of one swedish farming family, focussing on judit (the titular queen). she is the eldest daughter of the house, and eventually the farm comes under her purview.
i always wonder about translated novels like this; how accessible is this in its original language? are there cultural references that i would understand if i could read it in swedish? the descriptions are evocative, but also somehow opaque and isolating. birgitta trotzig and i share a birthday. the swedish landscape described in this story feels at once familiar and also utterly foreign.
the foreword of this edition talks about the omniscient narrator, but i wonder if that is truly the right term to use. we rarely get insight into the actions of judit, or the other characters, and when we do, it certainly isn't descriptions of their internal thoughts and feelings. there is a very touching sequence where judit makes a dress for an estranged niece. the dress itself tells us more about how judit feels than the novella does.
i always wonder about translated novels like this; how accessible is this in its original language? are there cultural references that i would understand if i could read it in swedish? the descriptions are evocative, but also somehow opaque and isolating. birgitta trotzig and i share a birthday. the swedish landscape described in this story feels at once familiar and also utterly foreign.
the foreword of this edition talks about the omniscient narrator, but i wonder if that is truly the right term to use. we rarely get insight into the actions of judit, or the other characters, and when we do, it certainly isn't descriptions of their internal thoughts and feelings. there is a very touching sequence where judit makes a dress for an estranged niece. the dress itself tells us more about how judit feels than the novella does.
July 8, 2026
Wowowow! Every sentence, a poem. Can’t wait for more of Trotzig’s work to be published in English.
August 22, 2026
It's best to summarise this by directly quoting from the afterword:
I liked how monochromatic the similes were. It's like watching The Seventh Seal, which is also Swedish:
A quick search on my Kobo (the merits of reading ebooks, hehe) reveals close to 100 entries of 'white', 60 entries of 'gray', around 30 entries of 'black' and... *DRUMROLL*... 200+ entries of 'dark'!!!
/white
/gray
/dark
If you like Jon Fosse you'll probably like this, I definitely see a lot of similarities between them (bleak descriptions of the surrounding sea, recursive writing, the cruel facticity of life, a search for God’s grace), but this one's a little more rich and... full-bodied, for lack of a better word. If Fosse is a pinot noir, then Trotzig is a cabsauv. Haha. But they are both somehow tannic yet... quaffable (I'd learnt this fancy word from an essay on natural wine). Life in the Nordics really shapes you in a certain way...
The "plot" of a novel is almost absent in Trotzig's work, she is deep inside us where we yearn and blindly grope, and are helpless and small. Where we hurt others and can find no way back. She inhabits the mythic space within us, the divine, where we all, no matter how wretched we are, nevertheless are still made of light.—Hanne Ørstavik
I liked how monochromatic the similes were. It's like watching The Seventh Seal, which is also Swedish:
A quick search on my Kobo (the merits of reading ebooks, hehe) reveals close to 100 entries of 'white', 60 entries of 'gray', around 30 entries of 'black' and... *DRUMROLL*... 200+ entries of 'dark'!!!
/white
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
/gray
Gray sky, black nettles, chicken scratch, the cat upon the rat, down the meadows the gray expanse of the sea — what did she have to do with this whole world? Alone were they, each and every one unto themself, like cast stones scattered in the empty water dawn
/dark
And there was violence in him. Something putrified in darkness, that's how it was, the darkness inside him that was the darkness in such places one dares not enter after dusk — the darkness between the wind-moaning pines in the grove around which the road curved (the grove with the well) or the darkness under the bent pine where the search party once cut down the priest in Ljunby,
If you like Jon Fosse you'll probably like this, I definitely see a lot of similarities between them (bleak descriptions of the surrounding sea, recursive writing, the cruel facticity of life, a search for God’s grace), but this one's a little more rich and... full-bodied, for lack of a better word. If Fosse is a pinot noir, then Trotzig is a cabsauv. Haha. But they are both somehow tannic yet... quaffable (I'd learnt this fancy word from an essay on natural wine). Life in the Nordics really shapes you in a certain way...
August 26, 2026
I was transfixed by this story, loved how the novel was crafted and the prose
August 9, 2026
I guess the writing style isn't really my cup of tea. It uses so much similes and visual comparisons that they come across as less evocative and more evasive.
May 5, 2026
4.5 ⭐️
March 24, 2026
This is a 1964 novella about the harsh lives of a farming family in the south of Sweden in the early 1900s. 62 years later, and it receives its first English translation from Saskia Vogel.
I had this recommended to me a while back, but when I read the précis of it more recently, something similar to my first sentence here, I must admit that it didn’t sound very interesting.
However, taut with intensity and a gathering momentum that grabs hold and doesn’t let go, it certainly is interesting.. and more than that, it’s a great piece of literature with splendidly drawn characters and a plot that reads something like a fairy tale, with Trotzig’s style of writing often more like poetry than a usual narrative.
It is the story of three siblings born to a father with penchant for violence, and a seemingly unconcerned mother. Judit, the oldest child, raises her two younger brothers on the desolate Swedish farm their father has run into the ground. One of the brothers, Albert, doesn’t speak, and is bullied at school. The other, Viktor, is picked on by his father for no apparent reason. Judit is nicknamed ‘Queen’ by the locals, as she is something they have never seen, a powerful and forceful young woman.
As Viktor goes through adolescence he gets in more and more trouble, and eventually decides on a new life in the United States.
Trotzig’s writing, and Vogel’s interpretation, may annoy some, as it lacks punctuation at times, as it seems she is more concerned with description than any detailed plot development. However, it worked for me. It gives a sense that not everything should be taken at face value, and there is a mysterious tinge to the second half in particular, and a sense of the supernatural.
I had this recommended to me a while back, but when I read the précis of it more recently, something similar to my first sentence here, I must admit that it didn’t sound very interesting.
However, taut with intensity and a gathering momentum that grabs hold and doesn’t let go, it certainly is interesting.. and more than that, it’s a great piece of literature with splendidly drawn characters and a plot that reads something like a fairy tale, with Trotzig’s style of writing often more like poetry than a usual narrative.
It is the story of three siblings born to a father with penchant for violence, and a seemingly unconcerned mother. Judit, the oldest child, raises her two younger brothers on the desolate Swedish farm their father has run into the ground. One of the brothers, Albert, doesn’t speak, and is bullied at school. The other, Viktor, is picked on by his father for no apparent reason. Judit is nicknamed ‘Queen’ by the locals, as she is something they have never seen, a powerful and forceful young woman.
As Viktor goes through adolescence he gets in more and more trouble, and eventually decides on a new life in the United States.
Trotzig’s writing, and Vogel’s interpretation, may annoy some, as it lacks punctuation at times, as it seems she is more concerned with description than any detailed plot development. However, it worked for me. It gives a sense that not everything should be taken at face value, and there is a mysterious tinge to the second half in particular, and a sense of the supernatural.
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.
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.
June 8, 2026
Bleak from start to finish with rare moments of hope.
The foreword was an impassioned forewarning providing an excellent introduction, which I understood even more on re-reading at the end.
Initially the writing style of Queen was difficult to grasp - it was repetitive, choppy, clipped and phrases were frequently inverted. The tone seemed very impersonal so the characters weren't easy to warm to. Most of the men were especially unlikeable while the women silently dissipated, with the exception of our protagonist 'Queen' Judit who was visible and strong but frustratingly less endearing as she aged. All that, combined with the harrowing nature of the story, made it quite an arduous read to get to grips with. Familiarity, optimism and a compelling plight eased me into the second half though it was no less gruelling than the first.
The emphasis on light and shade were powerful and reinforced throughout. Nearly every sentence made reference/analogy to white or grey with occasional glimpses of colour from the lighthouse beams, flowers, nature and some vivid descriptions of the Swedish landscape.
Despite spanning nearly one hundred grim years, this poetically peppered book was short enough that I could just about tolerate the utter despair.
Enjoyment of Queen feels like a misnomer with so much hardship at its core but I am glad I stumbled upon this haunting novella in my quest for a good Q book!
The foreword was an impassioned forewarning providing an excellent introduction, which I understood even more on re-reading at the end.
Initially the writing style of Queen was difficult to grasp - it was repetitive, choppy, clipped and phrases were frequently inverted. The tone seemed very impersonal so the characters weren't easy to warm to. Most of the men were especially unlikeable while the women silently dissipated, with the exception of our protagonist 'Queen' Judit who was visible and strong but frustratingly less endearing as she aged. All that, combined with the harrowing nature of the story, made it quite an arduous read to get to grips with. Familiarity, optimism and a compelling plight eased me into the second half though it was no less gruelling than the first.
The emphasis on light and shade were powerful and reinforced throughout. Nearly every sentence made reference/analogy to white or grey with occasional glimpses of colour from the lighthouse beams, flowers, nature and some vivid descriptions of the Swedish landscape.
Despite spanning nearly one hundred grim years, this poetically peppered book was short enough that I could just about tolerate the utter despair.
Enjoyment of Queen feels like a misnomer with so much hardship at its core but I am glad I stumbled upon this haunting novella in my quest for a good Q book!
April 11, 2026
“Judit sensed the Queen triumphing, now she has me by the throat, now my limbs will turn to stone, my hair writhing stone snakes, gaping stone mouth, bulging great empty stones […] now I have in my stone body a stone heart. The Queen has me. I am queen of myself, in the land of twilight I am left to eat stone.”
“But could one fall in any way but eternally in the same direction? In any way but forever back down into one’s self?”
I took my time with this because every sentence was filled with so much, this book is both spare and incredibly dense with feeling at the same time. Reading Ørstavik’s afterword was so interesting in sensing her direction inspiration for ‘The Pastor’, one of my favorite reads of this year.
“But could one fall in any way but eternally in the same direction? In any way but forever back down into one’s self?”
I took my time with this because every sentence was filled with so much, this book is both spare and incredibly dense with feeling at the same time. Reading Ørstavik’s afterword was so interesting in sensing her direction inspiration for ‘The Pastor’, one of my favorite reads of this year.
April 19, 2026
Poetic prose that does, admittedly, become a little tedious at times (lots of repetition). A timeline that flits back and forth too. But an interesting commentary on turn of the century life for those with nothing but family.
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.
April 9, 2026
A formally modernist character study full of beautiful language, almost no dialogue, and tons of atmosphere. It is a tale of the land, the struggles of family, and the pain that comes from having to grow up well before one's time. I would compare Trotzig to Woolf, but without the almost overwhelming interiority that is the hallmark of Woolf's work.
July 30, 2026
Genuinely great! Read like a mini Pachinko set in Sweden, only 140 pages too. Love a story with the landscape as a character and how it spoke for people who couldn't get in touch with their emotions. I understand why it is a classic!
March 26, 2026
Nicely written and very descriptive - not a bad book at all just one I didn’t really enjoy. Very bleak in setting tone and plot and it felt a bit of a chore to read.
I’m not sure if certain messages flew ofer my hear but all in all it felt relentlessly colourless and hopeless.
A huge portion of the book isn’t even about the titular queen which I understand provides context for later developments but it was a bit odd not knowing this ahead of time especially considering how long this section goes on for.
Probably the first Faber Editions book I’ve not loved but that’s the whole point of trying something new!
2.5*
I’m not sure if certain messages flew ofer my hear but all in all it felt relentlessly colourless and hopeless.
A huge portion of the book isn’t even about the titular queen which I understand provides context for later developments but it was a bit odd not knowing this ahead of time especially considering how long this section goes on for.
Probably the first Faber Editions book I’ve not loved but that’s the whole point of trying something new!
2.5*
March 29, 2026
Deeply depressing but beautifully written, your heart breaks for all of the siblings who contend with their grief, fear and circumstances in their own fundamentally flawed ways
March 21, 2026
I wouldn't say I enjoyed this book, but I can appreciate it. The afterword by Hanne Ørstavik described her sense of leaning in to Trotzig's language, sinking in as to soil...that's beautiful, but it's not the experience I had. To me the book felt cold, inaccessible. Still, interesting structure; no dialogue, long sweeps of time that are described only in terms of inner life and in relation to the earth.
Okay, in these abstract terms I like the book more than I did when I was reading it.
Okay, in these abstract terms I like the book more than I did when I was reading it.
March 19, 2026
This is not a joyous book,centred around Judit who was bought up on a farm in Sweden,is still there ruling the roost,she is known as Queen ad she is a strong women and makes sure everything goes well on the farm.Her siblings are very different to her,her parents struggle.She brings up her youngest brother as a mother.
Well written, although it seems that there are a lot of colourful adjectives used to heighten the bleakness of the surroundings and her thoughts.
Well written, although it seems that there are a lot of colourful adjectives used to heighten the bleakness of the surroundings and her thoughts.
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.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews