Wolf Winter
Cecilia Ekback, 2015
Weinstein Publishing
376 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781602862944
Summary
"Wolf winter," she said, her voice small. "I wanted to ask about it. You know, what it is."
He was silent for a long time. "It’s the kind of winter that will remind us we are mortal," he said. "Mortal and alone."
Swedish Lapland, 1717. Maija, her husband Paavo and her daughters Frederika and Dorotea arrive from their native Finland, hoping to forget the traumas of their past and put down new roots in this harsh but beautiful land.
Above them looms Blackasen, a mountain whose foreboding presence looms over the valley and whose dark history seems to haunt the lives of those who live in its shadow.
While herding the family’s goats on the mountain, Frederika happens upon the mutilated body of one of their neighbors, Eriksson. The death is dismissed as a wolf attack, but Maija feels certain that the wounds could only have been inflicted by another man.
Compelled to investigate despite her neighbors’ strange disinterest in the death and the fate of Eriksson’s widow, Maija is drawn into the dark history of tragedies and betrayals that have taken place on Blackasen. Young Frederika finds herself pulled towards the mountain as well, feeling something none of the adults around her seem to notice.
As the seasons change, and the "wolf winter," the harshest winter in memory, descends upon the settlers, Paavo travels to find work, and Maija finds herself struggling for her family’s survival in this land of winter-long darkness. As the snow gathers, the settlers' secrets are increasingly laid bare. Scarce resources and the never-ending darkness force them to come together, but Maija, not knowing who to trust and who may betray her, is determined to find the answers for herself.
Soon, Maija discovers the true cost of survival under the mountain, and what it will take to make it to spring. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Hudiksvall, Sweden
• Education—M.A., University of London
• Currently—lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Cecilia Ekback was born in Sweden in a small northern town. Her parents come from Lapland.
After university she specialised in marketing. Over twenty years her work for a multinational took her to Russia, Germany, France, Portugal, the Middle East and the UK.
In 2010, she finished a Masters in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway of the University of London. She now lives in Calgary with her husband and twin daughters, "returning home" to the landscape and the characters of her childhood in her writing. Wolf Winter is her first novel and she is at work on her second. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Swedish Lapland of 1717 is evoked so vividly that it seeps into your bones… A highly intelligent piece of historical Scandi-noir.
Times (UK)
A compelling, suspenseful story.
Sunday Times (UK)
This story of the struggle for survival of a family of Finnish settlers in Swedish Lapland in the early 18th Century is not for the faint hearted. The writer creates a convincing atmosphere of a very strange time in a very strange land... The details of how these people survive in an extraordinary landscape stays with you long after you have finished reading.
Daily Mail (UK)
Wolf Winter eminently repays reading for the beauty of its prose, its strange, compelling atmosphere and its tremendous evocation of the stark, dangerous, threatening place, which exists in the far north and in the hearts of all of us.”
Melanie McGrath - Guardian (UK)
In Wolf Winter, Swede Cecilia Ekback (writing in English) provides something fresh: for a start, a period setting (Swedish Lapland in 1717) and a haunting poetic strain not found elsewhere in the genre, except perhaps in the novels of Johan Theorin…. Highly individual fare.
Barry Forshaw - Financial Times (UK)
Wolf Winter is an absorbing and impressive debut from an author who I look forward to reading again.
Globe and Mail (Canada)
Ekback keeps the historical setting vivid and laced with pertinent details, but her characters are multifaceted… There is nothing quaint about Ekback’s 18th century Sweden, which is full of political gaming at all levels, and a landscape that seems bent on killing anyone who commits to living on it. Ekback could certainly follow up with a sequel, but with her balance of fine prose and clever plotting, I hope she ventures into different times and characters, as I’m excited to see her range.
National Post (Canada)
Wolf Winter is richly atmospheric and vivid. The cold is beyond imagining, as is the enveloping dark and the terrible hunger as stores diminish. Inevitably, Wolf Winter will be compared with Hannah Kent's remarkable Burial Rites. Ekback, however, has achieved something different. Wolf Winter is an historical crime mystery in the Nordic noir tradition, which chills as it impresses.
Anna Creer - Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Ekback is at her best when describing the harsh, unforgiving land and the family’s unending battle with nature.
Jordan Foster - Strand Magazine
Swedish-born Cecilia Ekback’s debut novel is a real page-turner. Similar to Stephen King’s writing style and imagination, the novel, which is set in 1717 Lapland, takes us on an exhilarating journey (4 stars).
Ok! Magazine (UK)
Ekback does a good job depicting a terrifying snowstorm, the conflicting cultures of settlers and Lapps, and the endless winter darkness. But the novel also contains a disorienting mix of obsolete words..., realistic glimpses of pioneer hardships, and far-fetched plot devices.
Publishers Weekly
Swedish-born debut author Ekback writes with deliberate pacing and immerses the reader in the endless snowfall of winter with her hypnotic prose. —Emily Byers
Library Journal
Ekback takes readers on a journey to Swedish Lapland in 1717, a harsh and unforgiving place where the supernatural bleeds over into the difficult lives of the few settlers.... Ekback's straightforward prose lacks nuance, but her....snapshot of life...where simply staying alive is a victory, proves irresistible.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. To what extent does landscape affect the behavior of the characters in Wolf Winter?
2. There are three narrators in this story: Maija, Frederika, and the priest. How do their narrative styles differ?
3. Women are at the center of this story. Given the period in which the book is set, their agency is limited. How easy is it for a modern reader to accept this?
4. How wold you characterize the relationship between Maija and Frederika?
5. Jutta, Maija's grandmother, appears to her. What role does she play?
6. Why is Maija so hostile to Frederika's gifts?
7. What role do animals—real and imagined—play in this story?
8. Other older belief systems lie very close to the surface of peoples' lives in Blackasen Mountain. how does the Church attempt to control and manipulate them for its own end?
10. Cecilia Ekback has described a "Wolf Winter" as a moment in our lives when we confront our very darkest thoughts. How do the three main characters emerge from their Wolf Winters?
11. What do you imagine lies in store for the priest?
12. When Maija's husband returns (we may assume he does), how might their relationship have changed?
13. Each of the settlers has brought with them to their new homes on Blackasen Mountain the burdens of their past. What impact do the events in the book have on them?
14. What lies behind Elin Eriksson's actions?
15. The Lapps lead their lives largely in parallel to the settlers. What happens when the two communities come together?
16. Why does Maija persist in her inquiries?
17. Do you think the priest is a moral, immoral, or amoral agent in the story?
18. Why do you think the other settlers regard Maija as a threat?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)