Novel
Dykungens dotter
Not translated into English
Birgitta Trotzig · 1985
Synopsis
The coast of Österlen, in Scania, at the end of the twenties. Mojan, a fisherman's daughter, leaves the small farm where she grew up: a dark, foreign man, a vagabond, has passed through her life and gone again, and she is expecting a child by him. She gives birth to a daughter and cannot bring herself to love her, hindered by her own guilt. The child grows up in this refusal, and what destroyed the father reappears in her, then in her own son. The book carries the subtitle “a child's story”, and its title comes from a tale by Andersen.
Context
The title and the motif come from Andersen's tale of the marsh king's daughter, in which light prevails over darkness. The novel is set at the moment when poor Sweden passes from the land and animals to the town and machines, from Österlen to Kristianstad and Malmö. It was its author's last novel; it was shortlisted for the Nordic Council Prize, and appeared in French with Gallimard in 1988.
Who it is for
A dense novel, in Swedish or in French; the prose, close to poetry, advances by images rather than by scenes.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as her best-known novel and as one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century Swedish literature.
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