![]() ![]() It’s a book which needs to be read in full before you get a true sense of what is happening, and even then there’s a sense that the writer is playing with the reader a little, never truly revealing how much of the story is real and how much the product of a disturbed mind. The Helios Disaster is a story in two parts, the first taking us from Anna’s dramatic ‘birth’ up to an emotional evening in her local church, with the second describing the aftermath of her emotional breakdown. ![]() As those around her start to believe in miracles, Anna herself just longs to be reunited with Conrad, her father, who perhaps holds the key to her true origins… With no memory of anything before the vivid scene which brought her into the world, she must learn to adapt to an ordinary life in the midst of a nice, God-fearing family – which makes the sudden discovery of her ability to speak in tongues even more disturbing. She is found by a neighbour and taken to the authorities, eventually ending up fostered out to a family.Īfter such a dramatic start, there’s little chance of Anna, as she is called by her new carers, settling down to a quiet life. The blood sinks into the worn wooden floor and I think, his eyes are green like mine.Ī modern Athena, born from the head of her father, the girl emerges as a twelve-year-old, fully-clad in armour, before shedding her clothes and heading off into the Swedish snow (wearing only a helmet). The person in front of me, standing in the blood on the floor, is my father, His woollen socks suck it up greedily and turn red. You are my father, I tell him with my eyes. For an instant that is as long as life itself we face one another and look each other in the eye. Linda Boström Knausgård’s The Helios Disaster (translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles, review copy courtesy of the publisher) begins with a bang, a story born of blood: The book itself is a short, powerful novella, one which hasn’t got the press it deserves as far as I can tell – surprising, considering the bearded Norwegian elephant lurking in the corner of the room. It’s always welcome when another intrepid publisher appears in the world of fiction in translation, and today’s review sees my first encounter with one of those brave presses, World Editions.
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