Literature, Mystery/Thriller -- 4 stars
Fredrik Welin is a physician who was forced into a disgraceful retirement after making an error during a surgery. For decades he has lived alone on an island in Sweden's archipelago. He has a daughter he hardly knows and rarely sees, and his only dependable human contact is with a retired postman. When the physician's house burns down in an act of arson, he is the prime suspect. When a second house is torched, his arrest is imminent. This is an odd book, beautifully written in a style of short sentences that evoke a spirit of unease and, at the same time, a sort of peace. While there is a mystery, it is more a work of literature--a study of one elderly man struggling with profound loneliness. Flashbacks reveal an incipient selfishness that morphed into a meanness of spirit leaving him totally unaware that he is the reason for his own unhappiness--or maybe even that he is unhappy at all. His attempts to interact with other people are clumsy and sad, though not entirely in vain. I'm not sure if the ending is hopeful as much as it is simply a relief from the stultifying singleness of his existence. Whichever it is, a bit of light is on the horizon by the last page, and somehow you feel you are leaving him in a better place.
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