Review ere:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2021/10/31/book-review-nordic-fauna-by-andrea-lundg...

Goodness, this book, which is a s et of 6 short stories, take you to some dark places in the human soul. They are set in the dark North and the darkness of the night and the forest is replicated in the lives of the people in these stories. Without discussing each one in turn, I was left with a feeling of disquiest after each one. No one seems to be happy or content. There is an ambiguity here as well. Are some of the items or events mentioned real or imagined?
This is well constructed, but I'm not sure that I'd describe it as a book I enjoyed. There is reference to rape and child abuse in here so those of a sensitive disposition may wish to take a pass. ( )

North Bothnia Shorts
Review of the Peirene Press paperback edition (Feb. 2021) translated from the Swedish language original "Nordisk fauna" (March 2018)

{3 rating overall, based on the average of 6 ratings]
Scandinavian/Baltic is usually just up my alley, but 4 out of 6 of these short stories, set in the North Bothnia (Norrbotten) part of Sweden which is partially above the Arctic Circle, didn't leave much of an impression on me. Even only a few days after reading, I had to re-skim those to try to remember what they were about. There was no such issue with the two 5-star rated stories The Father Hole and On the Nature of Angels. You expect a bit of depression and noir in the lands of the colder and darker regions, but I just wasn't connecting with four of these tales. The two standouts were extra remarkable then, especially coming late in the book.

1. The Bird That Cries in the Night ** Estranged father insists on clearing brush while complaining about hearing bird cries in the night.
2. The Cat ** Family has to mercy kill a stray cat that has been struck by a car (I was probably a bit repulsed by this one).
3. How Things Come to Seem ** Woman gets off a train and walks into the forest.
4. The Father Hole ***** Girl reminisces about summers spent with her marriage separated father. Has an eerie climactic "Fantastic Voyage"-inspired sequence of her imagining her shrunken self travelling through his body.
5. The Girlfriend ** Anna imagines her boyfriend David being dead when he is late arriving home.
6. On the Nature of Angels ***** University professor with an esoteric specialization in Angelology is marked for job cutbacks.

I read Nordic Fauna as part of my annual subscription to Peirene Press. Nordic Fauna is also the January 2021 Book of the Month perk for support of The Republic of Consciousness Prize for small independent publishers. ( )