The Murderer’s Mother
Henrietta lives a quiet life with her son, the boy. The boy grows up and becomes ready for life, a teenager all suddenly, graduating from school in a fancy new suit. Then the police come knocking on their door. At the small table in her kitchen, where she and the boy share their meals and their coffee, they tell her that her son has murdered another teenager. But a mother loves her son and she continues to love him, visits him in prison to maintain contact and because she doesn’t know what else to do. The world goes on outside the walls, the seasons change regardless; but life is on hold for them both.
During one of her visits to the prison, Henrietta notices another woman in the waiting room. Someone who is there for the same reason – a murderer’s mother just like her. Gradually they seek contact with each other, and become close. Henrietta falls in love with Grace, feverishly they clutch on to each other, a period of bliss and intimacy in the otherwise benumbing stand-still. Henrietta and Grace talk very little about their boys, and nothing at all about their crimes. As Henrietta finally builds up the courage to tell her son about the new relationship, he responds in anger to her having found happiness while he is left stuck in there. Then Grace divulges that her son refuses to see her, and asks Henrietta to seek him out under false pretences. Reluctantly Henrietta agrees, and pays him a visit that will come to shift the balance between them.
Afterwards nothing can be taken for granted anymore: not what has happened, nor what will come to pass. Henrietta and Grace are pulled apart and drawn together, over and over, while Henrietta is trying to make sense of her situation and of Grace’s story. What is she to believe, when there are so many versions of the truth? She can feel that the end is closing in, but the end of what?
Ida Linde’s new novel, The Murderer’s Mother, is a razor-sharp psychological portrait of a woman stuck in a state of waiting, and a disarming depiction of unexpected love with tremendous consequences.
Ida Linde was born in 1980, grew up in Umeå but now lives in Stockholm. She made her debut in 2006 with novel Maskinflickans testamente. Her 2014 novel You Travel North to Die was awarded Norrland Literature Society’s Prize and Aftonbladet’s Literary Prize. Linde has taught Creative Writing at the renowned Biskops Arnö Writers’ School and is…
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Poland: Lokator, Serbia: LagunaHenrietta lives a quiet life with her son, the boy. The boy grows up and becomes ready for life, a teenager all suddenly, graduating from school in a fancy new suit. Then the police come knocking on their door. At the small table in her kitchen, where she and the boy share their meals and their coffee, they tell her that her son has murdered another teenager. But a mother loves her son and she continues to love him, visits him in prison to maintain contact and because she doesn’t know what else to do. The world goes on outside the walls, the seasons change regardless; but life is on hold for them both.
During one of her visits to the prison, Henrietta notices another woman in the waiting room. Someone who is there for the same reason – a murderer’s mother just like her. Gradually they seek contact with each other, and become close. Henrietta falls in love with Grace, feverishly they clutch on to each other, a period of bliss and intimacy in the otherwise benumbing stand-still. Henrietta and Grace talk very little about their boys, and nothing at all about their crimes. As Henrietta finally builds up the courage to tell her son about the new relationship, he responds in anger to her having found happiness while he is left stuck in there. Then Grace divulges that her son refuses to see her, and asks Henrietta to seek him out under false pretences. Reluctantly Henrietta agrees, and pays him a visit that will come to shift the balance between them.
Afterwards nothing can be taken for granted anymore: not what has happened, nor what will come to pass. Henrietta and Grace are pulled apart and drawn together, over and over, while Henrietta is trying to make sense of her situation and of Grace’s story. What is she to believe, when there are so many versions of the truth? She can feel that the end is closing in, but the end of what?
Ida Linde’s new novel, The Murderer’s Mother, is a razor-sharp psychological portrait of a woman stuck in a state of waiting, and a disarming depiction of unexpected love with tremendous consequences.
