Wolf Winter

Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Quite unlike anything I have read before. Wolf Winter is a classic piece of Scandi-noir, a gripping atmospheric novel set in 1717 in Lapland. Maija and her family move away from the coast, where her husband Paavo is haunted by depression, to take over a farm on Blackasen Mountain, a scattered settlement where people keep to themselves gathering only for church or when forced into town by the bitter winter weather. Taking their goats to pasture the elder daughter Fredricka finds the mutilated body of man. The locals explain it as a wolf attack but Maija suspects these wounds are the work of man. And the murder is only a starting point. Links to the spirit world in a judgemental puritan church framework, a fear of witchcraft, simmering tensions between settlers and displaced Lapps - there is something primeval about life on the mountain. The harsh conditions, the treacherous weather all add to a deep sense of foreboding. What is finally unearthed about ‘initials carved in wood’ is both unexpected and very disturbing. Wolf Winter is lyrically written by Cecilia Ekback who is a brilliant writer. The book took her four years to complete and is a most compelling read. 

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