The Father

Starred review from February 8, 2016
Svensson, the pseudonym of screenwriter Stefan Thunberg and investigative journalist Anders Roslund, heartbreakingly blurs the line between criminal and victim in this stunning first of a two-novel series based on a sensational string of bank robberies in 1990s Sweden. The present-day action, which chronicles the meticulous planning and execution of the escalating heists carried out by three brothers and a friend (all under the age of 24 and based on Thunberg’s own family members), alternates with flashbacks, which focus on their dysfunctional family: the rage-filled father, Ivan, an emigré from the former Yugoslavia; the sensible mother, Britt-Marie; and their three sons, Leo, Vincent, and Felix. Ivan brings the savagery he learned during the Balkan civil wars into his sons’ childhood, shaping the men they would become, especially Leo, the oldest, who’s to be the architect of the amazingly successful robberies. Svensson highlights one of Scandinavia’s darkest secrets—the brutal, all-too-frequent domestic violence that inspired the Swedish title, Men Who Hate Women, for Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Readers will be eager to see how it all plays out in the sequel. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden).

March 1, 2016
This Scandinavian thriller is the first entry in the Made in Sweden series. It is a riveting, if occasionally overwrought, rendering of a real-life crime spree 20 years ago involving three young brothers who turn their talents to bank robbery. The brutality they suffered at the hands of their father is manifested in the extreme violence they bring to their crimes. The intense family loyalty forged in the terrors of their youth makes for a read as heartrending in parts as it is appalling. The most amazing part of the story is that there is a fourth brother, Stefan Thunberg, who is half of the novel's pseudonymous writing team (along with Anders Roslund). A celebrated screenwriter who brought the stories of Henning Mankell and Hakan Nesser to television, he is never mentioned in the book. The singlemindedness of the three other brothers begs the question of how Stefan managed to stand apart. Fathers has been optioned for film. The second book, The Sons, is expected in 2017. Recommended for all fans of noir and Nordic crime fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)