Anna and Mats take their two children for a week’s holiday in Sicily - not far from Mount Etna. It has been a pretty tough year so far, and the trip, which they can’t really afford, is an attempt of breaking a vicious circle. The children a ...
Anna and Mats take their two children for a week’s holiday in Sicily - not far from Mount Etna. It has been a pretty tough year so far, and the trip, which they can’t really afford, is an attempt of breaking a vicious circle. The children are expectant, and are looking forward to peering down into the crater of a real volcano.
Yet the parents seem to be poisoning each other and the children with bitterness. Mats hardly says a word, and Anna is absorbed in her fantasies about The Other Man. They are pushing each other to a limit where they are about to lose control… The journey was meant to mark the start of a change. But can they come back together again? And do they want to?
From the Mouth of the Volcano is a charged drama of relationships, with conflicts, betrayals, dreams and love that completely take the reader’s breath away.
From reviews in the Swedish press:
"On the whole, From the Mouth of the Volcano goes right into the dark heart of civilisation, and at the same time right into the deepest shadows of Swedish everyday life./…/ Above all, it is the description of Anna’s inner life that impresses… /…/ this is a superb description of feminine discomfort, the woman who always wants everything to be so good, and who fails so dreadfully."
Jan Arnald, Dagens Nyheter
"Helena von Zweigbergk’s unorthodox method soon shows itself to be just perfect for this devilishly exact study of ‘misses’ as a way of life, concentrated to a charter holiday which costs too much and yet is too cheap and miserly and wrong and restricting. In the end, I find myself sitting there gasping in panic just like Anna, whose photo books about pleasure form a drastic contrast to a private life that is about everything except feeling good."
Maria Küchen, Expressen
"Helena von Zweigbergk really brings to light the way whining and grumpiness creates real whirlwinds of anxiety. And Anna’s own problems are just as convincingly petty." Elin Claeson, Kulturnytt P1, SwedishRadio
"This is an entertaining book which is not entertainment, a book that takes the hardships of family life seriously, and twists the knife in the middle-class heart." Catarina Nitz, Katrineholms kuriren