The Merman - Tapa dura

A dark, brooding Scandinavian fantasy. A hauntingly affective fable.

A gloriously inventive historical adventure.

Sensational. Vallgren has a superb talent, and makes witty and convincing cameos of the infamous and the great.

Frame[s] the everyday with an almost medieval fascination with the grotesque and the macabre.

Vallgren has written a deeply dark novel. Nella's wise stoicism makes her a memorable and affecting character, and her connection to the mistreated merman shows that working toward understanding is what can ultimately lead to redemption. A grim and moving contemporary fairy tale.

Enigmatic.

A heart-aching novel that resonated with me on a level I did not know existed. It's a book I strongly recommend.

There are some nicely observed episodes here and disturbing metaphors that offer brilliant, brief illuminations of his brutal subject matter.

Nella and her brother Robert live a difficult life with their mother and father in a small town on the west coast of Sweden. Robert is bullied at school, and Nella has to resort to debt and petty crime to pay off his tormentors. When she turns to her friend Tommy for help, her suspicions are aroused by the mysterious comings and goings of his brothers at their dilapidated boat house. But when she uncovers the reason behind their enigmatic behavior, her life is opened to the realities of a mindboggling secret.The Merman is a dark and haunting novel about sibling love and betrayal—and about what happens when the mundane collides with the strange and beautiful.