About fifteen years ago, when I worked in SF-Bokhandeln, I would read Locus Magazine on my lunch break and dream about having a book reviewed in there. Locus was my first encounter with the English-speaking publishing industry, and it all seemed magical and far away. Write a book? Heh. In English? Surely, you jest!
How I would love to travel back in time and present this review by Gary K. Wolfe in the October issue to my twenty-year-old self:
Wolfe has some very kind things to say such as
Tidbeck has the discipline to follow such absurdist premises with a kind of fierce plot logic that almost makes them seem inevitable. (about “Beatrice”)
and
[...] her various oddities are grounded in an absolutely authentic sense of place, and a keen understanding of how the heart works, even when it isn’t assisted by shift workers inside the body.
And he thinks this is the most important debut since Margo Lanagan … so this is high praise indeed.
The review doesn’t seem to be available online, and Locus only publishes a small portion of their printed material on the website. But that’s a fantastic excuse for curious people to buy an actual paper magazine.