Take Down the Sun
Ella lives with her grandmother in a townhouse in Sollentuna, just north of Stockholm. All through her life she’s struggled with the consequences of a very rare syndrome: she’s allergic to sunlight. Even the slightest ray of sun can make her skin burst out in painful blisters, and every day she must dress in full-coverage clothing and broad-brimmed hats before she can meet the everyday world.
Everywhere she goes, people stare and whisper, and it would have hurt twice as much, if it hadn’t been for her grandmother and her friends – Sebastian, Viktor and Mitra – who constantly watch out for her and stick by her through thick and thin. After an incident on their graduation day – a lapse of discern, caused solely by the joy of the moment – Ella is left bedridden for a long time, in horrible pains, and her friends have a falling out, blaming each other for what happened.
Some months later, Ella begins her university studies to become a meteorologist – something she has dreamed about for a long time. Learning the principles of weather is for her a way to control her own fate. And for the first time, she is also allowed to stand on her own two feet, living away from her over-protective grandmother. But when secrets of the past are unexpectedly revealed, Ella must rethink what happened on her graduation day, and during the aftermath. Perhaps the concern her friends showed her, wasn’t only for the sake of her wellbeing? Maybe there was a stroke of jealousy feeding the flames of the fight between them?
Take Down the Sun is a warm, charming, and moving novel about bringing sunlight into the darkest moments of life.
Sara Molin (born 1983) lives in a suburb of Stockholm with her husband and three children. She teaches secondary school Swedish as well as Swedish for beginners and spends most of her free time devouring commercial fiction. Asking on Behalf of a Friend is her third novel. Molin has previously published Miss Rennel Learns a Lesson and An Unwanted…
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About the book
Ella lives with her grandmother in a townhouse in Sollentuna, just north of Stockholm. All through her life she’s struggled with the consequences of a very rare syndrome: she’s allergic to sunlight. Even the slightest ray of sun can make her skin burst out in painful blisters, and every day she must dress in full-coverage clothing and broad-brimmed hats before she can meet the everyday world.
Everywhere she goes, people stare and whisper, and it would have hurt twice as much, if it hadn’t been for her grandmother and her friends – Sebastian, Viktor and Mitra – who constantly watch out for her and stick by her through thick and thin. After an incident on their graduation day – a lapse of discern, caused solely by the joy of the moment – Ella is left bedridden for a long time, in horrible pains, and her friends have a falling out, blaming each other for what happened.
Some months later, Ella begins her university studies to become a meteorologist – something she has dreamed about for a long time. Learning the principles of weather is for her a way to control her own fate. And for the first time, she is also allowed to stand on her own two feet, living away from her over-protective grandmother. But when secrets of the past are unexpectedly revealed, Ella must rethink what happened on her graduation day, and during the aftermath. Perhaps the concern her friends showed her, wasn’t only for the sake of her wellbeing? Maybe there was a stroke of jealousy feeding the flames of the fight between them?
Take Down the Sun is a warm, charming, and moving novel about bringing sunlight into the darkest moments of life.
