The story is one of a family torn apart. The concept
behind it is the effect of nature versus nurture on children, and begins with a
rather graphic scene of appalling domestic violence - it’s not giving anything
away to say that the first word is “Blood”. This leads us into the immediate
aftermath of the attack, and explains how the brothers decide to look after
themselves.
Their father has been taken to
prison, their mother is in hospital, and although there are concerns for the
trio, a neighbour agrees to help, and it’s felt that the boys are safe enough
in their own home.
What the social workers don’t
realise is that the older boy, Leo Duvnjac, has realised that the three need
money. And he has already thought through a means of making money. It involves
a robbery. With Leo’s planning and direction,
the brothers are
launched on a career as bank robbers, and as they grow to manhood, the three
become Sweden’s most wanted men.
Their career could not continue.
They were caught, and jailed, with Leo being imprisoned for six years. While
inside, he met Sam Larsen, and this was the beginning of the book’s story.
Because Sam had murdered his father; his brother had reported his crime to the
police, and later it was his brother who arrested Leo.
Now both are out of prison, and both
want revenge.
This is a powerful story, with a
strong cast of characters, and a rather grim, bleak storyline.
Okay, what did I like about it?
This is a powerful story, with a
strong cast of characters, and a rather grim, bleak storyline., with a series
of events and plotlines that keep the reader bowling along. It was a book that
had an interesting culture that was entirely new to me.
However, there was one aspect that
made it less gripping than I had expected, and that was the depiction of women
in the story.
I was thinking about this for some
time after reading the book, and before I put my fingers to the keyboard. This
is because any book works or fails for a reader on the basis of an entirely
subjective opinion. I candidly confess that I do not like James Patterson’s
books. I can say that happy in the knowledge that my own opinion will not hurt
his income by even a dollar. There are books I have read which I have not
enjoyed, but which many others have. Occasionally I have picked up books and
not got on with them at all; on other occasions I’ve picked up the same books
and loved them. People’s reading enjoyment can be affected by disputes at home,
by work pressure, by losing a favourite pet, so don’t take my opinion. Try the
book yourself.
In any case: there are two main
women in the story. One is the key victim early on - the mother of the three
boys. But I never really felt that I was truly involved in her life. Her part
in the story was, to me, merely a filler to give the brothers the motivation to
turn to crime. Although she does appear later in the book, she never felt fully
rounded to me.
The second woman is a police
officer, a senior detective, who appears almost with fanfare, but who then
almost disappears. Her role in the story seems at best rather tangential.
I don’t know whether these are true
weaknesses of the plot and story, or whether they were in my mind because at
the time of reading, I was editing two other works as well as writing a third.
Perhaps there was some undercurrent within my own works, or doubts about how I
had represented some of my own characters. I cannot say. Read the book and see
for yourself.
There is one aspect of the book
which I would like to comment on, though, and that is the quality of the
translation. The woman who performed the translation, Hildred Crill, has
succeeded magnificently in creating a book that reads as though it was
originally written in English. Translators rarely get recognition for their
efforts, but we should all recognise those who succeed so well because they
give a book a chance in a new language, whereas a poor translation will destroy
a book.
This is a book by two authors I had
not heard of: Anton Svensson is a writing partnership between Stefan Thunberg,
a celebrated screenwriter, and Anders Roslund, an investigative journalist.
Their first book, Father,
achieved rave reviews, and I was keen to see why, so I was glad to receive a
copy of The Sons to read. I should just point out that the cover blurb says
that this is “The second part of the highly acclaimed” series “Made in Sweden”.
I don’t know if this means that the book is intended to follow on from the
first, but since it reads well as a standalone, I don’t think it matters.
So, yes, it is a very good read,
with a compelling story and some believable characters. I would recommend it to
those who enjoy psychological thrillers and those who like Scandi Noir.
