Wolf Winter (Ekback) - Book Reviews

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