30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Echoes from the Dead" by Johan Theorin, Nov 30 2008
By Librarian - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Echoes from the Dead (Paperback)
Echoes from the Dead
Review is of a prepublication copy furnished for review through librarything.com by The Bantam Dell Publishing Group, A Division of Random House.
Twenty years ago Julia Davidsson's 5-year-old son Jens disappeared into the fog on the remote Swedish island of Öland and was never found. Everyone except Julia believes Jens wandered down to the shore and drowned. Unable to accept that her son is dead, Julia withdraws from her family and stumbles through life using alcohol and medication to deaden the pain of not knowing. Then, after all these years, her father Gerlof calls to tell her that someone has sent him one of Jens's sandals in the mail; so Julia returns to Öland to try, once again, to find her son.
Johan Theorin's "Echoes from the Dead" is an absorbing mystery that works on several levels: as a classic whodunit that keeps the reader guessing up to the last few pages, as a horror story with scenes that slowly pull the reader reluctantly forward, and as a family story that examines how tragedy cuts at the ties that bind and leaves them hanging by fragile threads. It is a story that unfolds across and between time periods starting with the day Jens disppears, then flowing back and forth between present and past: from Gerlof at the nursing home holding Jens sandal in his hand to before World War II where we pick up the life of Nils Kant, who supposedly died and was buried long before Jens disappeared but who Gerlof suspects is somehow involved in his grandson's disappearance. Above all, the novel is the story of a landscape, the island of Öland, that Theorin presents as a central character with a life and history of its own--a landscape that interacts with all its human inhabitants and drives their behaviors.
"Echoes from the Dead" is, on every level, an immensely satisfying experience no matter how you want to approach it.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Worthwhile Read; Fascinating Swedish Setting, July 13 2009
By zorba - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Echoes from the Dead (Paperback)
After reading "Echoes From the Dead", one feels he has lived his life on the once-remote island of Oland, off the east coast of Sweden. Through the eyes of the mostly elderly residents of the foggy, rainy (at least in winter) island, a riveting tale emerges. It starts off simply -- the death of a boy -- but the plot soon twists and turns and becomes more and more complex by the page. In like fashion, the suspense increases exponentially and by the end of the book, the surprises come rolling in like waves off the Baltic Sea. As others have pointed out, this book succeeds on several levels: a whodunit, a travelogue of a mysterious, almost mystical place; and a compelling novel about a community, its people and their blood-deep relationships with each other. The characters are well-drawn and memorable. The plot is (mostly) believeable and not too reliant on coincidence. All in all, a very good book by a promising author.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very satisfying, Jan 12 2009
By Pam Gearhart "auntiepam" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Echoes from the Dead (Paperback)
I can't add much to Librarian's insightful review, except "Ditto". What I liked best about the book was the realism of the relationships. Nothing was forced. I also appreciated that the somewhat convoluted mystery actually made sense. That doesn't always happen with a twisty plot.