Invisible Links

A gentle fable about the pitfalls of sudden wealth.Bought as part of a collection of (very) short books at Stockholm Airport. As a momento, it has done the trick.

After giving up on Lagerlof's better known 'Gosta Berling', I thought I would try this volume of thirteen of her short stories. I would rate these as extremely variable, between 4/5 for those set in the real world, and 2/5 for the numerous ones with a faerie element - during the latter my concentration kept wandering.There are some lovely descriptions of the Swedish countryside, and thoughts on life and religion. I enjoyed 'The Legend of the Bird's Nest', where Hatto the Hermit, a curmudgeonly old man 'who drove the little children away from his hole telling them that it had been best for them if they had never been born', finds a family of birds nesting in his hand as he stands still, and comes to understand God's love:'Perhaps,when all was said, God the Father held this earth in His right hand like a big bird's nest, and perhaps He had come to cherish love for all those who build and dwell there.'Didn't leave me with any great wish to read more of Ms Lagerlof's work.