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Sonata for Miriam
A haunting novel of loss, love, and human connection from the author of Astrid & Veronika
Linda Olsson's first novel, Astrid & Veronika , introduced readers to her gorgeous prose, and her extraordinary understanding of human relationships. With her second novel, she once again charts that terrain in a novel that also explores the significant impact of history on individual lives. In Sonata for Miriam , two events occur that will change composer Adam Anker's life forever. Embarking on a journey that ranges from New Zealand to Poland, and then Sweden, Anker not only uncovers his parents' true fate during World War II, but he also finally faces the consequences of an impossible choice he was forced to make twenty years before-a choice that changed the trajectory of his life.
Linda Olsson's first novel, Astrid & Veronika , introduced readers to her gorgeous prose, and her extraordinary understanding of human relationships. With her second novel, she once again charts that terrain in a novel that also explores the significant impact of history on individual lives. In Sonata for Miriam , two events occur that will change composer Adam Anker's life forever. Embarking on a journey that ranges from New Zealand to Poland, and then Sweden, Anker not only uncovers his parents' true fate during World War II, but he also finally faces the consequences of an impossible choice he was forced to make twenty years before-a choice that changed the trajectory of his life.
287 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
39 people are currently reading
747 people want to read
About the author
Linda Olsson
14 books248 followersLinda Olsson lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Her debut 'Let me sing you gentle songs' was published in September 2005 in New Zealand. Since then the rights for it have been sold to many countries. It has now been published in the US and Canada under the title 'Astrid and Veronika' as well as in her country of birth, Sweden (Låt mig sjunga dig milda sånger).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 202 reviews
January 31, 2013
Wonderfully beautiful but plain prose. This is a quiet book by a very talented author that manages to give the reader so many details in such a wonderful way that one can't help but placing themselves in the characters place as they are reading. If I had to choose a theme for this book it would be silence, this is mentioned so many times in so many different ways in this story. The silence of self delusion, of not wanting to know, of questions not asked nor answered, of peace and beauty and the silence of a remembered love. We travel from New Zealand, to Poland, to Sweden with a man who know longer feels that he has a future, so decides to seek the truth about his past. Need to go back and read this author's first book [book:Astrid and Veronika|181086, which I have heard amazing things about.
November 16, 2019
A beautifully written book that truly depicts the consequences that our silences and unspoken truths bear on our lives. There are gorgeous scenes in this book where I could close my eyes and feel like I was sitting with the characters. It reads like a piece of music itself.
April 5, 2012
In her second novel, Linda Olsson explores the themes of love, loss, choices, and memories from the past. A single decision can change a person's life and the lives of those who come after.Even inaction or silence has repercussions. One morning Adam Anker's daughter, Miriam, had urged him to "Get out, Dad. Have an adventure. It's Saturday!" Little did he know that this simple act would forever impact his world. Adam's thoughts in retrospect:
" If I had listened more carefully, would I have been able to hear more? Could I have heard it in the lingering sweetness of the final bars of the music that was playing in the background? Seen it in the light that washed over my daughter's face? In the graceful movement of her hand? Tasted it in the bitter flavors of the coffee?
Should I have known that this scene, in its everyday triviality, would become the shimmering crescendo of the memories on which I now sustain a sort of life?"
When Adam Anker visits the Holocaust Gallery in Auckland Domain Museum, his entire life is changed and a course of action set in motion to come to terms with Adam's past. Adam sees a picture of a man named Adam Lipski which sends his senses reeling. Elusive memories flit in and out of his brain. Lipski, the name he was born with but no longer carries, sends him on a search for family and answers to the past.
This journey takes him to Krakow, Poland and then on to Sweden. In Krakow he tracks down Adam Lipski's sister, Clara, and from her he gets more pieces of the puzzle. These pieces give him a better sense of who he is now and why his childhood was the way it was. This part of his search also introduces him to more key people from the past. These characters are an integral part of the story.
The next leg of the journey takes him to Sweden to meet up again with Miriam's mother, Cecelia, whom he has not seen for almost twenty years. Before Adam arrives in Sweden, the narrative is picked up by Cecelia and told from her perspective, we see many more pieces of the past and how they reflected on her relationship with Adam. In his journey Adam finds much more than he set out to find originally. All the pieces come together to make some semblance of resolution and a feeling of peace.
This is but a brief synopsis of Adam's personal journey. The writing in this novel is simply exquisite. The images evoked are so clear. This is one of the most visually descriptive books I have read in a long time and I can't remember a novel where the inner most thoughts and feelings of the characters are so intimately expressed.
Ms. Olssen has a deep understanding of the human emotions and this uncanny ability is ably depicted in her writing. She not only lets us see into the characters' heads, but creates a mood and tone to the novel that is almost haunting. The way Adam's memories are revealed is like looking through a gossamer curtain rippling in the breeze. A little bit is revealed as the curtain moves, even then it is not quite wholly grasped, but fleeting and elusive. A wonderful example of this style of writing taken from the very beginning:
" I can take one individual note out of the music I am trying to write at the moment, and it could belong anywhere. Yet, where it sits, where I have placed it, it follows what came before and leads to what comes after. Without it, the whole would not be as it is. " And
"It applies to music, to art, and to life itself, I think. When you listen to the finished composition, or when you go about living your life, the individual components join to make a whole that can so easily be taken for granted. But it is not until you become aware of the parts that you can begin to understand the miracle. It took me almost a lifetime to start searching for the sounds, the notes that make my life's music. And it required a sacrifice so enormous that it did away with all that had made my life meaningful. But in the total silence that came afterward, I finally heard a first single note, and others slowly followed."
It is extremely easy to see how this novel entranced me from the beginning. When I finished the last page, I could have gone back to the beginning and started to savor the beautiful prose all over again.I think this would make a wonderful book club selection. Highly, highly recommended. 5*****
" If I had listened more carefully, would I have been able to hear more? Could I have heard it in the lingering sweetness of the final bars of the music that was playing in the background? Seen it in the light that washed over my daughter's face? In the graceful movement of her hand? Tasted it in the bitter flavors of the coffee?
Should I have known that this scene, in its everyday triviality, would become the shimmering crescendo of the memories on which I now sustain a sort of life?"
When Adam Anker visits the Holocaust Gallery in Auckland Domain Museum, his entire life is changed and a course of action set in motion to come to terms with Adam's past. Adam sees a picture of a man named Adam Lipski which sends his senses reeling. Elusive memories flit in and out of his brain. Lipski, the name he was born with but no longer carries, sends him on a search for family and answers to the past.
This journey takes him to Krakow, Poland and then on to Sweden. In Krakow he tracks down Adam Lipski's sister, Clara, and from her he gets more pieces of the puzzle. These pieces give him a better sense of who he is now and why his childhood was the way it was. This part of his search also introduces him to more key people from the past. These characters are an integral part of the story.
The next leg of the journey takes him to Sweden to meet up again with Miriam's mother, Cecelia, whom he has not seen for almost twenty years. Before Adam arrives in Sweden, the narrative is picked up by Cecelia and told from her perspective, we see many more pieces of the past and how they reflected on her relationship with Adam. In his journey Adam finds much more than he set out to find originally. All the pieces come together to make some semblance of resolution and a feeling of peace.
This is but a brief synopsis of Adam's personal journey. The writing in this novel is simply exquisite. The images evoked are so clear. This is one of the most visually descriptive books I have read in a long time and I can't remember a novel where the inner most thoughts and feelings of the characters are so intimately expressed.
Ms. Olssen has a deep understanding of the human emotions and this uncanny ability is ably depicted in her writing. She not only lets us see into the characters' heads, but creates a mood and tone to the novel that is almost haunting. The way Adam's memories are revealed is like looking through a gossamer curtain rippling in the breeze. A little bit is revealed as the curtain moves, even then it is not quite wholly grasped, but fleeting and elusive. A wonderful example of this style of writing taken from the very beginning:
" I can take one individual note out of the music I am trying to write at the moment, and it could belong anywhere. Yet, where it sits, where I have placed it, it follows what came before and leads to what comes after. Without it, the whole would not be as it is. " And
"It applies to music, to art, and to life itself, I think. When you listen to the finished composition, or when you go about living your life, the individual components join to make a whole that can so easily be taken for granted. But it is not until you become aware of the parts that you can begin to understand the miracle. It took me almost a lifetime to start searching for the sounds, the notes that make my life's music. And it required a sacrifice so enormous that it did away with all that had made my life meaningful. But in the total silence that came afterward, I finally heard a first single note, and others slowly followed."
It is extremely easy to see how this novel entranced me from the beginning. When I finished the last page, I could have gone back to the beginning and started to savor the beautiful prose all over again.I think this would make a wonderful book club selection. Highly, highly recommended. 5*****
August 20, 2018
This is a book about silence--the way so many relationships are built around what isn't said as much as around what is--all the tacit "contracts" we make with people to keep certain silences, and how damaging relationships built on these kinds of dynamics can be--and the harm that can come when people refuse to share their stories, particularly with their kids, but also with lovers and friends.
I appreciate the theme, and the emptiness Adam Anker feels--the void he falls into, as he doesn't know who he is because his mother hid her history and therefore his history from him. There is a lot of beautiful writing, the writing and atmosphere drew me in, the sureness of the prose, the emotional lives of the characters--and I particularly appreciated Linda Olsson's way of describing places and connections to place.
The structure of the novel is interesting. There are five sections that all begin with a poem or a quote except for the section narrated by Cecilia (Adam's long lost lover--the rest narrated by Adam). Cecilia's section isn't preceded by a poem, just a blank page, and that was a bit disconcerting, but I appreciated its meaning. Because Cecilia is someone who is, even at the end of the novel, still, it seems, trying to hold onto the silences that she and Adam had built their relationship around. At least I think she was. And yet, she is writing about it to Adam, presumably (or maybe these are all "letters not sent"?).
The first three sections are preceded by poems by Tymoteusz Karpowicz. Here is the first.
A Lesson of Silence
Whenever a butterfly
happened to fold
too violently its wings--
there was a call: silence, please!
As soon as one feather
of a startled bird
jostled against a ray--
there was a call: silence, please!
In that way were taught
how to walk without noise
the elephant on his drum,
man on his earth.
The trees were rising
mute above the fields
as rises the hair
of the horror-stricken.
Within the sections there are chapters, 43 in all, mostly narrated by Adam, in epistolary form. He is writing to his lost love Cecilia who, when she was pregnant, told him he must choose to stay with her or to raise their daughter. He chose to raise their daughter. She told him never to contact her again, at least while their daughter was alive. In the opening of the novel his daughter has just died and on the day of her death, just before he finds out about it (he has been away all day and has not yet heard) he finds, in a museum exhibit related to the Holocaust, a photo of his namesake, Adam Lipski. (He is named Adam Anker, but on his birth certificate he is Adam Lipski, and at this exhibit he finds the name of the other Adam Lipski's sister and decides to contact her. Adam's (the narrator's) mother hadn't ever told him who his father was, so he spends much of the book trying to unravel the mystery of his birth while also grieving the loss of his daughter.)
There is a lot I appreciate about this book. But there are a few too many silences even for me (I am very drawn to the theme), and too many people who've only ever had one love. I find it really hard to believe that so many people connected in the world of this novel went for anywhere from twenty to sixty plus years lovelorn over one person and (at least as far as I can tell from the text) never having other romantic relationships. It's like everyone in this novel has only one true love (or are stuck in a certain time when they had that one love?) and I know trauma can make time strange, often keep people from thriving or being in the present, but it begins to feel contrived at a certain point.
And the end. The end is very abrupt and when I got there I just felt confused.
And there is very little, really, about Miriam in here. And that, well, perhaps it is all part of the silence, but I find it a bit troubling. And the music, the sonata itself, I don't quite have a sense of it--of the Sonata for Miriam, of music in general in here--of Adam as a musician.
So, I found the book a bit frustrating and maybe a tiny bit under or overcooked, but I'm glad I came across this novel and the writer, who I had not heard of. Not sure if I will check out other work by her, but I very well may.
I appreciate the theme, and the emptiness Adam Anker feels--the void he falls into, as he doesn't know who he is because his mother hid her history and therefore his history from him. There is a lot of beautiful writing, the writing and atmosphere drew me in, the sureness of the prose, the emotional lives of the characters--and I particularly appreciated Linda Olsson's way of describing places and connections to place.
The structure of the novel is interesting. There are five sections that all begin with a poem or a quote except for the section narrated by Cecilia (Adam's long lost lover--the rest narrated by Adam). Cecilia's section isn't preceded by a poem, just a blank page, and that was a bit disconcerting, but I appreciated its meaning. Because Cecilia is someone who is, even at the end of the novel, still, it seems, trying to hold onto the silences that she and Adam had built their relationship around. At least I think she was. And yet, she is writing about it to Adam, presumably (or maybe these are all "letters not sent"?).
The first three sections are preceded by poems by Tymoteusz Karpowicz. Here is the first.
A Lesson of Silence
Whenever a butterfly
happened to fold
too violently its wings--
there was a call: silence, please!
As soon as one feather
of a startled bird
jostled against a ray--
there was a call: silence, please!
In that way were taught
how to walk without noise
the elephant on his drum,
man on his earth.
The trees were rising
mute above the fields
as rises the hair
of the horror-stricken.
Within the sections there are chapters, 43 in all, mostly narrated by Adam, in epistolary form. He is writing to his lost love Cecilia who, when she was pregnant, told him he must choose to stay with her or to raise their daughter. He chose to raise their daughter. She told him never to contact her again, at least while their daughter was alive. In the opening of the novel his daughter has just died and on the day of her death, just before he finds out about it (he has been away all day and has not yet heard) he finds, in a museum exhibit related to the Holocaust, a photo of his namesake, Adam Lipski. (He is named Adam Anker, but on his birth certificate he is Adam Lipski, and at this exhibit he finds the name of the other Adam Lipski's sister and decides to contact her. Adam's (the narrator's) mother hadn't ever told him who his father was, so he spends much of the book trying to unravel the mystery of his birth while also grieving the loss of his daughter.)
There is a lot I appreciate about this book. But there are a few too many silences even for me (I am very drawn to the theme), and too many people who've only ever had one love. I find it really hard to believe that so many people connected in the world of this novel went for anywhere from twenty to sixty plus years lovelorn over one person and (at least as far as I can tell from the text) never having other romantic relationships. It's like everyone in this novel has only one true love (or are stuck in a certain time when they had that one love?) and I know trauma can make time strange, often keep people from thriving or being in the present, but it begins to feel contrived at a certain point.
And the end. The end is very abrupt and when I got there I just felt confused.
And there is very little, really, about Miriam in here. And that, well, perhaps it is all part of the silence, but I find it a bit troubling. And the music, the sonata itself, I don't quite have a sense of it--of the Sonata for Miriam, of music in general in here--of Adam as a musician.
So, I found the book a bit frustrating and maybe a tiny bit under or overcooked, but I'm glad I came across this novel and the writer, who I had not heard of. Not sure if I will check out other work by her, but I very well may.
February 28, 2010
Linda Olsson's writing is absolutely beautiful, which is why I gave this book three stars. The central theme that runs through this novel about loss are the consequences of silence.
The reason I did not rate this novel higher are that I thought that the plot was contrived. There was a bit too much packed in - loves lost, the Holocaust, long-lost relatives who just happen to live in New Zealand. The other reason for not loving this book is that I found the main characters to be distant and their explanations for their actions to be either vague or not lacking emotional resonance.
The reason I did not rate this novel higher are that I thought that the plot was contrived. There was a bit too much packed in - loves lost, the Holocaust, long-lost relatives who just happen to live in New Zealand. The other reason for not loving this book is that I found the main characters to be distant and their explanations for their actions to be either vague or not lacking emotional resonance.
November 26, 2021
I love every one of Linda Olsson's books! I may have read them all now, so I can start from the beginning again. Some I've read in English, some in Swedish so now I'll try and change the language. I also hope to meet her in Stockholm later this month.
March 23, 2009
This is my first experience with Linda Olsson and I'm so thankful that I have found her. Her writing is exquisite and invokes such emotion, that I find it hard to put into words the feelings I experienced while reading this novel. Her descriptions of the places and people make you feel as if you are there along side Adam. I felt his pain accutely in so many parts of this book. The loss of his daughter is always moving like a whisper in the background of the story. Everything that he is and does is because of this love that he experienced while raising her and then losing her. With that loss, he has to find a way to live again. Living is something that he finds extremely hard to do, but he realizes that he did not give his daughter everything that he could've...he never gave her the mother that she needed to know. He himself never got to know his real father, so he decides to explore the clues that he uncovered in the War Memorial Museum. As he uncovers his family's history you get to really know, understand, and to see how his past has influenced his life and the choices he has made along the way. With the help of family he never knew about and newly found friends, he eventually is able to reconcile his past so that he can embrace his future. Olsson's writing is spare and eloquent. She has such a masterful command of language and I found myself falling in love with her words.
"I never knew how Jan's father had discovered that our time was running out. He must have made some elaborate preparations after he heard about the imminent deportation of Jews. But he never discussed it with me--not then, not later. When I arrived at their apartment, they were ready to go, and we left the same afternoon. I was to travel with them to London, officially as Jan's tutor. And that was how I ended up as the only surviving member of my family. I survived. But I lost my life.
p.133
I lay down on the bed clasping the pictures and buried my face in the pillow in a vain attempt at silencing my sobs. But it was as if all my life's accumulated grief had finally found an outlet and was allowed to take its course. I screamed, I cried, until the grief became bearable. Afterward I lay staring into the air above the bed.
And eventually I fell into a dreamless sleep.
p. 175
I could list a thousand such passages that moved me but I want you, the reader, to experience them for yourself. If you haven't read Linda Olsson then I strongly recommend this book to you. I believe that it will become a favorite read for 2009, just like it has for me!
"I never knew how Jan's father had discovered that our time was running out. He must have made some elaborate preparations after he heard about the imminent deportation of Jews. But he never discussed it with me--not then, not later. When I arrived at their apartment, they were ready to go, and we left the same afternoon. I was to travel with them to London, officially as Jan's tutor. And that was how I ended up as the only surviving member of my family. I survived. But I lost my life.
p.133
I lay down on the bed clasping the pictures and buried my face in the pillow in a vain attempt at silencing my sobs. But it was as if all my life's accumulated grief had finally found an outlet and was allowed to take its course. I screamed, I cried, until the grief became bearable. Afterward I lay staring into the air above the bed.
And eventually I fell into a dreamless sleep.
p. 175
I could list a thousand such passages that moved me but I want you, the reader, to experience them for yourself. If you haven't read Linda Olsson then I strongly recommend this book to you. I believe that it will become a favorite read for 2009, just like it has for me!
May 28, 2019
In a sense, nothing has a beginning or an end... but sometimes, in hindsight, we can see where the turning point has occurred. p34
It is disconcerting to detect in oneself old assumptions thought to be long extinguished. So I was annoyed with myself mostly by the confusion I experienced at the outset, assuming that the narrator was of the same sex as the author, pictured on the back cover as a woman. It wasn't until the end of the first chapter that it became clear that this was not so, and I had to go back and start again from quite a different point of view, even though the words I was reading were the same.
Still they remained measured and flat as the emotional tone of our beleaguered hero, victim of an overly convoluted and unlikely plot.
Adam is a musician and there are many reference to composers and pieces as well as his own sonata that I hoped might enhance my enjoyment of the reading, so I procured the audiobook. It was more lively but the music was not included. It did emphasize the thinness of the story.
Now I have memories of my own feelings, not the feelings themselves I carry it with me but it is no longer alive. p10
It is disconcerting to detect in oneself old assumptions thought to be long extinguished. So I was annoyed with myself mostly by the confusion I experienced at the outset, assuming that the narrator was of the same sex as the author, pictured on the back cover as a woman. It wasn't until the end of the first chapter that it became clear that this was not so, and I had to go back and start again from quite a different point of view, even though the words I was reading were the same.
Still they remained measured and flat as the emotional tone of our beleaguered hero, victim of an overly convoluted and unlikely plot.
Adam is a musician and there are many reference to composers and pieces as well as his own sonata that I hoped might enhance my enjoyment of the reading, so I procured the audiobook. It was more lively but the music was not included. It did emphasize the thinness of the story.
Now I have memories of my own feelings, not the feelings themselves I carry it with me but it is no longer alive. p10
Read
February 17, 2009The first thing you come to in this complex book is a quote from Symon Laks: "But words must be found, for besides words there is almost nothing." This thought is central to all of the story lines in this novel of memories, silence and history both shared and hidden.
On the same day that Adam Anker loses his only remaining family, a teenage daughter, he finds an obscure lead to his father that leads him on an amazing journey through post-war-torn Europe and it's survivors. Secrets long untold are slowly revealed and truths come to painful light that somehow complete the circle of who Adam is and what he is meant to do in this life. The idea that no true love is ever lost reoccurs over and over again.
Mostly told in Adam's voice, there is a brief section where the author says that one of the other characters just "had to be allowed to speak for herself... Nobody else could possibly tell her story." While jarring at first, this change in tone, and the glimpse into years of silence it offers us, is perhaps one of the most moving parts of this emotional book.
This book truly spotlights the value of words, especially stories of people, and their ability to bring us closer together and ease our pain. Full of loss, this is nevertheless one of the most hopeful books I've read in some time.
Jackie
On the same day that Adam Anker loses his only remaining family, a teenage daughter, he finds an obscure lead to his father that leads him on an amazing journey through post-war-torn Europe and it's survivors. Secrets long untold are slowly revealed and truths come to painful light that somehow complete the circle of who Adam is and what he is meant to do in this life. The idea that no true love is ever lost reoccurs over and over again.
Mostly told in Adam's voice, there is a brief section where the author says that one of the other characters just "had to be allowed to speak for herself... Nobody else could possibly tell her story." While jarring at first, this change in tone, and the glimpse into years of silence it offers us, is perhaps one of the most moving parts of this emotional book.
This book truly spotlights the value of words, especially stories of people, and their ability to bring us closer together and ease our pain. Full of loss, this is nevertheless one of the most hopeful books I've read in some time.
Jackie
March 7, 2018
Sonata for Miriam is a book about how the past is in the present.After the death of his daughter Mimi (Miriam)Adam searches for meaning and explanations and presumably finds it by moving from New Zealand to Krakow via an island in Sweden where Miriam's mother (Cecilia) lives. However, the readers are left to fill in so many of the details for themselves,which can be very frustrating. Was Cecilia's "father" really her father? ("You're so sweet, darling.Just like a real father.Better than her father ever was." p226)...did her "father" sexually abuse her?...did she kill him? how was it even possible for Adam to take baby Miriam off to NZ?...how do you rock up at Auckland airport with a newborn and explain to the Immigration officials that her Mum said I should keep it?...it would take months to organise passports and documents and during this time Cecilia would /should be bonding with the child...and if not ,why not?..did Cecilia just hand the baby over to Adam and say ok, she's yours...if so why would he still care a jot about her?... and even if NZ officials were having a particularly lax day and they somehow slipped in, how would Adam be able to explain to Miriam that her mother was probably alive and well being an artist in Sweden?...Did I like this book?...Hmm...
March 17, 2019
Ruotsalaisen Linda Olssonin kirjat ovat upeita, niin on myös hänen Sonaatti Miriamille, joka odotti kirjahyllyssä lukuvuoroaan luultavasti pitkähkön ajan.
Valitettavasti Olssonin kirjassa sivutaan samaa asiaa kuin edellisessä kirjassa, aikuisen miehen inhottavia tekoja pienelle tytölle. Olssonin kirja jatkuu pitkälti tytön aikuisuuteen ja kertoo myös miten nuo teot vaikuttivat koko hänen elämäänsä ikävällä tavalla, ja jatkuivat jopa seuraavaan sukupolveen asti. Inhottavilla kokemuksilla on yleensä taipumus vaikuttaa mielenterveyteen, niin tässäkin sydäntä raastavan surumielisessä tarinassa.
Sonaatti Miriamille kertoo Ruotsissa kasvaneesta Adamista ja hänen halustaan tuntea omat sukujuurensa. Kuka hänen isänsä oli ja missä kaikki sukulaiset olivat? Adam päätyy kyseiselle etsintäretkelle läheisen kuoleman johdosta. Etsintäretkellään hän matkustaa Krakovaan, josta hänen sukujuurensa kenties oli mahdollista löytää.
Suunnitellessaan matkaansa, Adam päätti ottaa yhteyttä myös entiseen rakastettuunsa. Heidän suhteensa päättyi parikymmentä vuotta aiemmin. Oli tullut aika puhua kipeistä asioista, jotka aiheuttivat eron, sillä molemmat rakastivat toisiaan suunnattomasti. Voi mikä ihana ja samalla pakahduttava rakkauskertomus Sonaatti Miriamille on.
Valitettavasti Olssonin kirjassa sivutaan samaa asiaa kuin edellisessä kirjassa, aikuisen miehen inhottavia tekoja pienelle tytölle. Olssonin kirja jatkuu pitkälti tytön aikuisuuteen ja kertoo myös miten nuo teot vaikuttivat koko hänen elämäänsä ikävällä tavalla, ja jatkuivat jopa seuraavaan sukupolveen asti. Inhottavilla kokemuksilla on yleensä taipumus vaikuttaa mielenterveyteen, niin tässäkin sydäntä raastavan surumielisessä tarinassa.
Sonaatti Miriamille kertoo Ruotsissa kasvaneesta Adamista ja hänen halustaan tuntea omat sukujuurensa. Kuka hänen isänsä oli ja missä kaikki sukulaiset olivat? Adam päätyy kyseiselle etsintäretkelle läheisen kuoleman johdosta. Etsintäretkellään hän matkustaa Krakovaan, josta hänen sukujuurensa kenties oli mahdollista löytää.
Suunnitellessaan matkaansa, Adam päätti ottaa yhteyttä myös entiseen rakastettuunsa. Heidän suhteensa päättyi parikymmentä vuotta aiemmin. Oli tullut aika puhua kipeistä asioista, jotka aiheuttivat eron, sillä molemmat rakastivat toisiaan suunnattomasti. Voi mikä ihana ja samalla pakahduttava rakkauskertomus Sonaatti Miriamille on.
August 3, 2018
It always irritates me when conversations are lyrical. People don't talk like that. Descriptions and thoughts can be lyrical, but not conversations. People don't go to a different country to visit someone to find out if they are related and then not ask the question or get an answer. And teenagers don't talk with their fathers in long soul-revealing paragraphs.
There are better ways of getting information to the reader without resorting to direct quotes that don't ring true.
There are better ways of getting information to the reader without resorting to direct quotes that don't ring true.
January 10, 2019
I practically inhaled this melancholy novel. Checked it out from the library, curled up on the couch, and before I knew it it was over. This starts off with a large dose of mystery. Enough to keep the reader searching for answers. The story is told by Adam and then shifts to the love of his life’s perspective. The unfolding events are related in words that glide while evoking a struggle. In less deft hands all the minute descriptions could become tedious. This is not the case with Ms. Olsson as her attention to detail provides the reader with a fine tuned sense of place. The story shifts locales with each one presenting more clues as you near the resolution. No character is wasted. Each one enhances the story and sustains Adam in his search for answers. I think this story is not for everyone. The sadness might get too oppressive. It definitely is the kind of book I love to read. The language is elegant, the story is intense, and the ending will bring a peaceful tear to your eye and sigh of release to your soul.
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December 19, 2020TAUSHETENS KONSEKVENSER av Linda Olsson. En stor sorg, en lang reise tilbake i fortiden, en ny begynnelse. Kort oppsummert. Som leser har jeg beveget meg i mange landskap i denne boken, men først og sist handler det om Adam Anker og hans jakt etter spor fra fortiden og hans egne foreldre. Polen, Krakow. Jødeforfølgelsene under krigen. Og først og sist er tittelen veldig betegnende. "Vi snakker ikke om det. Vi tenker ikke på det engang. Og du skal få se at det går over." Mor sto i døråpningen, og lyset fra gangen skapte henne om til en mørk, pregløs silhuett." "Det går over. Vi vil glemme." Og så snudde hun seg og gikk og trakk døren til rommet mitt nesten helt igjen bak seg. Men det gjorde ikke det. Det gikk aldri over. Spørsmålene som aldri kunne bli stilt, antok sin egen skikkelse. Og tausheten ga dem næring."
April 24, 2021
Very lyrically written. An all encompassing atmosphere of 20th century east central Europe. Beautiful descriptions of nature. Vague ambiguity about all interpersonal relations. Got to be rather melancholy and unfocused.
October 30, 2017
Imagine not knowing your early history, the people the places and what occurred to that time. Imagine, too, intentionally giving up connection with someone for a big chunk of your life. This is a kind of life amnesia. It does make for a an interesting exploration for Olsson's main character, Adam, a single father living in Auckland, a violinist and composer. Some people have difficulty living in the present. Adam lives only in the present. It is all he has, until life suddenly changes, and as often happens if we are sensitive and aware, other dots, even those seemingly very separate start to ignite connection.
Adam's exploration is as much an interior journey of his unknown history as it is a journey that takes him from Auckland to Wellington in New Zealand to Krakow, Poland and to a remote island in Sweden and into the lives of people, who made choices impacting him. Part of the reader's journey along with Adam is to confront these choices without judgement. We meet some interesting characters, some more developed and influential than others. Most of the writing is exquisite, although there are some murky parts that left me unsure of where I was and what was happening. I am still a little unsure about one part, but don't want to include any spoilers here.
This is a beautiful novel about love, loss, grief, friendship and deep connection and understanding. For the most part it is compelling and very worth the journey.
Adam's exploration is as much an interior journey of his unknown history as it is a journey that takes him from Auckland to Wellington in New Zealand to Krakow, Poland and to a remote island in Sweden and into the lives of people, who made choices impacting him. Part of the reader's journey along with Adam is to confront these choices without judgement. We meet some interesting characters, some more developed and influential than others. Most of the writing is exquisite, although there are some murky parts that left me unsure of where I was and what was happening. I am still a little unsure about one part, but don't want to include any spoilers here.
This is a beautiful novel about love, loss, grief, friendship and deep connection and understanding. For the most part it is compelling and very worth the journey.
January 30, 2009
The first thing you come to in this complex book is a quote from Symon Laks: "But words must be found, for besides words there is almost nothing." This thought is central to all of the story lines in this novel of memories, silence and history both shared and hidden.
On the same day that Adam Anker loses his only remaining family, a teenage daughter, he finds an obscure lead to his father that leads him on an amazing journey through post-war-torn Europe and it's survivors. Secrets long untold are slowly revealed and truths come to painful light that somehow complete the circle of who Adam is and what he is meant to do in this life. The idea that no true love is ever lost reoccurs over and over again.
Mostly told in Adam's voice, there is a brief section where the author says that one of the other characters just "had to be allowed to speak for herself... Nobody else could possibly tell her story." While jarring at first, this change in tone, and the glimpse into years of silence it offers us, is perhaps one of the most moving parts of this emotional book.
This book truly spotlights the value of words, especially stories of people, and their ability to bring us closer together and ease our pain. Full of loss, this is nevertheless one of the most hopeful books I've read in some time.
On the same day that Adam Anker loses his only remaining family, a teenage daughter, he finds an obscure lead to his father that leads him on an amazing journey through post-war-torn Europe and it's survivors. Secrets long untold are slowly revealed and truths come to painful light that somehow complete the circle of who Adam is and what he is meant to do in this life. The idea that no true love is ever lost reoccurs over and over again.
Mostly told in Adam's voice, there is a brief section where the author says that one of the other characters just "had to be allowed to speak for herself... Nobody else could possibly tell her story." While jarring at first, this change in tone, and the glimpse into years of silence it offers us, is perhaps one of the most moving parts of this emotional book.
This book truly spotlights the value of words, especially stories of people, and their ability to bring us closer together and ease our pain. Full of loss, this is nevertheless one of the most hopeful books I've read in some time.
July 27, 2009
One of the best books I've ever read. It was very difficult at first; kept making me cry at the beginning but maybe that's just me. It is beautiful, sad, complicated and hopeful. The tracing of all the characters and their relationships to each other is handled so delicately, so lyrically. Again, maybe just me but there is a musical undercurrent although the author claims not to be musical.
I had read Astrid and Veronika, her earlier novel, and found it good but a bit too Ingmar Bermanly Scandinavian. This one represents a huge next step, I think. I recommend it highly.
I had read Astrid and Veronika, her earlier novel, and found it good but a bit too Ingmar Bermanly Scandinavian. This one represents a huge next step, I think. I recommend it highly.
December 31, 2010
I guess the theme of this book was people who don't talk and are unable to communicate. Maybe so, but I got so tired of no one talking and communicating that I just wanted to yell, "Somebody SAY something!" Read for my IAL contemporary literature class, and I think I made an ass out of myself during the discussion. Still, some of the description of New Zealand, Warsaw & Norway? (Sweden?) which occurred while no one was talking were lovely.
September 23, 2016
So well written; such sorrow and thankfully some redemption. I'm not familiar enough with music composition to recognize that the pace and length of the chapters follow the cadence of a sonata. But apparently they do. With settings in New Zealand, Poland and Sweden and a passage of time from World War II to the present this is a very well done and well told story.
August 2, 2019
So slow.Almost not moving at all.Like "Lyrical" sludge.If I hear that word one more time attached to this book-lyrical this, lyrical that-I'm going to laugh out loud.I keep nodding off mid sentence. Frankly it is so pretentious that there is no point to continue reading it.Because as far as I can tell nothing but nothing is happening.Lyrically speaking.JM
November 14, 2010
I absolutely adored this book.
October 18, 2018
Love this woman’s writing and would buy any of her books. They are beautiful in a sad and lonely way.
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November 20, 2024Family trees and grieving.
I listened to two books alongside one another, each with a Miriam and a Cecelia.
Listening length 8.75 hr
I listened to two books alongside one another, each with a Miriam and a Cecelia.
Listening length 8.75 hr
April 13, 2025
Review published in the NZ Listener, 1-7 November 2008
"In a lonely place"
Sonata for Miriam
Linda Olsson
(Penguin, $37.00)
Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson
In her first novel, Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs, Linda Olsson serenaded readers with a warm and compassionate portrayal of the growing friendship between two women dealing with loss.
Sonata for Miriam is the second novel by the Swedish-born New Zealand resident and again she shapes a story around grief and loss, and a journey to answer questions about the past.
Adam Anker, born in Poland and raised in Sweden, is a musician and composer living on Waiheke Island with his teenage daughter Miriam. After her unexpected death, and a chance discovery at a museum, he returns to Poland to find out who he really is.
Then he visits Sweden to see Cecilia, the mother of his daughter, who inexplicably gave him an ultimatum after the baby was born, as Adam relates: “I could have her, or I could have the child. Never both.” He chose his daughter, and a kind of self-imposed exile by taking her to far-flung New Zealand and building a new life for them there.
The story unfolds slowly, albeit with two momentous events to be unravelled, but these are filtered through Adam’s unhurried contemplations. Something as mundane as a hairclip triggers memories of his daughter, which is typical of the subtle symbolism of Linda Olsson’s storytelling.
The author writes with a European sensibility, with classical music references, a certain sense of formality and tradition, and the various characters who have been affected by the Holocaust. But she ably conveys a sense of New Zealand (‘a sliver of volcanic rock newly risen from an eternity of surrounding sea, so small and removed from all other land’), in particular the casual, outdoors life of Waiheke and Auckland.
Cecilia also lives on an island in Sweden, which is subject to the extremes of the seasons, from crowds of summer holidaymakers to sea ice you can walk on in winter.
Olsson’s prose is fluid, confident and sensitive, but the story is lonelier than her first novel. Adam addresses Cecilia in his thoughts as ‘you’, but it is not until over three quarters of the way through the book that the narrative is handed over to Cecilia, and the reader begins to understand her tale.
Finally the story sparked, with the friction of the relationship and two viewpoints.
Olsson invites readers to actively read between the lines, but I wanted to hear more from Cecilia and why she could not bear to raise their daughter. Each of the two main stories vying for the reader’s attention in this complex, skilfully layered novel could have formed the basis of a separate novel. My vote was for Adam and Cecilia’s relationship, but it came off second best to Adam’s quest to discover the truth about his roots.
Philippa Jamieson is a Dunedin freelance writer and editor.
"In a lonely place"
Sonata for Miriam
Linda Olsson
(Penguin, $37.00)
Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson
In her first novel, Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs, Linda Olsson serenaded readers with a warm and compassionate portrayal of the growing friendship between two women dealing with loss.
Sonata for Miriam is the second novel by the Swedish-born New Zealand resident and again she shapes a story around grief and loss, and a journey to answer questions about the past.
Adam Anker, born in Poland and raised in Sweden, is a musician and composer living on Waiheke Island with his teenage daughter Miriam. After her unexpected death, and a chance discovery at a museum, he returns to Poland to find out who he really is.
Then he visits Sweden to see Cecilia, the mother of his daughter, who inexplicably gave him an ultimatum after the baby was born, as Adam relates: “I could have her, or I could have the child. Never both.” He chose his daughter, and a kind of self-imposed exile by taking her to far-flung New Zealand and building a new life for them there.
The story unfolds slowly, albeit with two momentous events to be unravelled, but these are filtered through Adam’s unhurried contemplations. Something as mundane as a hairclip triggers memories of his daughter, which is typical of the subtle symbolism of Linda Olsson’s storytelling.
The author writes with a European sensibility, with classical music references, a certain sense of formality and tradition, and the various characters who have been affected by the Holocaust. But she ably conveys a sense of New Zealand (‘a sliver of volcanic rock newly risen from an eternity of surrounding sea, so small and removed from all other land’), in particular the casual, outdoors life of Waiheke and Auckland.
Cecilia also lives on an island in Sweden, which is subject to the extremes of the seasons, from crowds of summer holidaymakers to sea ice you can walk on in winter.
Olsson’s prose is fluid, confident and sensitive, but the story is lonelier than her first novel. Adam addresses Cecilia in his thoughts as ‘you’, but it is not until over three quarters of the way through the book that the narrative is handed over to Cecilia, and the reader begins to understand her tale.
Finally the story sparked, with the friction of the relationship and two viewpoints.
Olsson invites readers to actively read between the lines, but I wanted to hear more from Cecilia and why she could not bear to raise their daughter. Each of the two main stories vying for the reader’s attention in this complex, skilfully layered novel could have formed the basis of a separate novel. My vote was for Adam and Cecilia’s relationship, but it came off second best to Adam’s quest to discover the truth about his roots.
Philippa Jamieson is a Dunedin freelance writer and editor.
March 12, 2020
I think I picked up this book because the author's name is the same as a good friend, but who has one less S in the last name. Though she hasn't written any books yet, I know she may in time. This ended up being a beautifully written novel of loss and trying to understand the silences of family mysteries. On the day that Adam Anker is visiting a museum in Auckland, NZ where he finds some information that tie into his birth, he finds that his daughter, Miriam, has died in a bike accident. Twenty years earlier, Adam had been dating a woman named Cecilia in Sweden, and she had given him their daughter, but left him. He moved as far away as he could, to New Zealand. As he recovers from his grief, he tries to find answers to his birth story in Krakow, Poland, and later, goes to Sweden, to find out answers about Miriam from Cecilia. It is a beautifully written book that allows the family mysteries to emerge slowly as Adam travels from New Zealand to Poland and on to Sweden.
August 18, 2019
Yksinäinen ja ulkopuoliseksi itsensä tunteva kuusikymppinen Adam Anker tapasi nelikymppisenä elämänsä rakkauden, itseään parikymmentä vuotta nuoremman Cecilian, mutta onnea kesti vain yhdeksän kuukautta. Mies pakeni pienen tyttärensä kanssa kauas Uuteen-Seelantiin, ja tytär, sävellystyöt ja musiikki täyttivät hänen elämänsä. Vuosi sitten traaginen menetys suisti miehen sumuun, värit haalistuivat ja sävelet katosivat. Tragedia ja Aucklandin holokaustimuseossa nähty valokuva sysäävät alulle omien juurten selvittelyn. Adam matkustaa Krakovaan ja sitten vielä Tukholman ulkosaaristoon tapaamaan Ceciliaa 19 vuoden jälkeen.
Ymmärrän toki, että Cecilia oli rikki, mutta en sittenkään ymmärtänyt tyttäreen Miriamiin liittyviä ehdottomia ehtoja. Minusta tämä juoniosuus, siis Miriamia koskeva, ei tuntunut ollenkaan uskottavalle ja kirjan lumo lässähti pahemman kerran.
Ymmärrän toki, että Cecilia oli rikki, mutta en sittenkään ymmärtänyt tyttäreen Miriamiin liittyviä ehdottomia ehtoja. Minusta tämä juoniosuus, siis Miriamia koskeva, ei tuntunut ollenkaan uskottavalle ja kirjan lumo lässähti pahemman kerran.
March 6, 2019
For the first 2/3 of this book, I was so excited. The story was fresh and interesting. A man with, as he sees it, no future, looks back into his past and finds a fascinating story in Poland. And then, well I must have fallen asleep, even though I listened to this in the car, because a huge part of the past and present was completely unexplained. I can't say more without revealing the plot, but WHAT THE HELL was that part all about.
Also, I don't know if it was the reader's voice or the characterization, but when the female character began her story about 2/3 of the way through, I became very uninterested. She was too self absorbed and SHE NEVER EXPLAINED an important part.
Frustrating.
Also, I don't know if it was the reader's voice or the characterization, but when the female character began her story about 2/3 of the way through, I became very uninterested. She was too self absorbed and SHE NEVER EXPLAINED an important part.
Frustrating.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2017
Asi nikdy jsem nečetla podobně napsanou knihu. Děj od začátku slibuje velká odhalení a zvraty, ale přes to není třeba při čtení pospíchat a text to ani nedovoluje. Je zde plno detailů a popisů, které mě občas v jiných knihách rozčilují. Tady ale dodávají textu rytmus, proud pomalý, ale vytrvalý. Hrozně těžko se mi to popisuje. Rozhodně to na mě zanechalo velký dojem.
Krásně, smířeně, ale ne odevzdaně napsáno. Obdivuji takovou vyrovnanost se životem. Konečně postavy, které svých činů nelitují a nestěžují si na osud.
Krásně, smířeně, ale ne odevzdaně napsáno. Obdivuji takovou vyrovnanost se životem. Konečně postavy, které svých činů nelitují a nestěžují si na osud.
May 27, 2017
I have read Linda Olsson before and I was then slightly disappointed so I didn't expect much from this one. But I really enjoyed reading about the sorrow, the secrets of the past and the search for the roots, the silence and the music and Cecilia and three different milieus, Swedish archipelago, New Zealand and Krakova, Poland. I guess it was a perfect time to read this delicate and deep novel. Maybe I should read Astrid and Veronika again, slowly. And I just found out that I've read The Kindness of your Nature too and liked that one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 202 reviews