Released on 4th March 2021.
TRIGGER WARNING: Sensitive topics approached in this book include domestic abuse, physical and sexual abuse of children, forced adoption, mentions of abortion, threatening and controlling behaviour in relationships. There may be some issues I have forgotten.
If there is anything I've learned from the Swedish books I've read, it's that their authors are masterful at making you feel uncomfortable in your skin with every other sentence. And I'm not just talking about the triggering issues! My Brother is a story of family reunions that reveal personal histories and the physical and emotional scars they have left on the people in this town.
The main character and narrator, Jana Kippo, seems to be a character with no aim or goal in anything she does and is quite a self-destructive person. Though she is also quite self-aware, she knows what her negative qualities are and knowingly gives in to desires with clear consequences, ignoring instincts she's very aware of. After a long time away, she returns to her hometown where her twin brother, Bror, still resides in their old family home with no idea of how long she intends to stay. Within her first week of being home, she finds a job opening as a homecare worker, a vacancy made as the former employee was now deceased. It is through this narrative that the history of Jana, her family and various other people in the town are revealed.
And with these reveals, you find a town full of people who are quite well informed on what is going on in each other's lives but would prefer to not interfere in situations that people should have just so that there are no disruptions to the peace the small town enjoys. And it makes many of them reprehensible characters. With each of Jana's visits to the people she cares for in her homecare job, short interactions lead to flashbacks of her own childhood and how their words connect to her own trauma. She reconnects with a town full of people who could have helped her at one time or another but never spoke up lest they disturb the small-town peace. And she also relearns some of her own past mistakes, memories that have stayed with others but she selectively forgot to retain some sense of choosing what experiences moulded her into the person she is now.
Lingering in the background of this year of recollections of Jana settling into her new and old life, there is the memory of the dead woman whose job the former took and whose husband she struck up a dysfunctional relationship with - Maria. Maria was a well-known woman throughout the town, she left an impression on everyone, men and women alike. The memory of her lingers in the background for every person in this small town, it's reminiscent of the effect of the dead Rebecca in Daphne du Maurier's novel. Everyone was enraptured by her and her death was too sudden for the people to recover from it. It is not as prominent as Rebecca as this story is not about how Jana fits into the Maria shaped hole as she is also settling back into her own home.
There seems to be no particular aim in the novel other than uncovering each person's story and learning how they all tie to each other and relate to the main characters - Jana, Bror and, at times, John. I often found myself wondering when events would take a turn for the dramatic or twisted but came to understand that it isn't about that. It's about the characters, Jana in particular, facing their past and dealing with it, processing how it has and continues to impact her life.
Reasons to Recommend:
- Readers of international literature
- A genuine portrayal of a character who is self-aware about their self-destructive behaviours
- A town that lives in the past
- Similarities to Rebecca with a different story to accompany it
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