About the Book
Fourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in an ex-commune beside a lake in the beautiful, austere backwoods of northern Minnesota. The other girls at school call Linda ‘Freak’, or ‘Commie’. Her parents mostly leave her to her own devices, whilst the other inhabitants have grown up and moved on.
So when the perfect family – mother, father and their little boy, Paul – move into the cabin across the lake, Linda insinuates her way into their orbit. She begins to babysit Paul and feels welcome, that she finally has a place to belong.
Yet something isn’t right. Drawn into secrets she doesn’t understand, Linda must make a choice. But how can a girl with no real knowledge of the world understand what the consequences will be?
Format: ebook (223 pages) Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publication date: 3rd January 2017 Genre: Contemporary Fiction
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My Review
‘It was nothing. I was nothing.’
An unsettling feeling permeates this book, the author’s debut novel. It starts with Linda’s home life: a mother who barely acknowledges her and a father who is absent most of the time. Their cabin is remote and spartan, hidden away in the forest reached by a track that you could miss if you didn’t know where to look. Having said that, the forest is where Linda probably feels most at home. She has a detailed knowledge of its flora and fauna, its quiet places and ancient trees. A little of a ‘lone wolf’ herself, it’s perhaps the reason she instinctively chooses ‘history of wolves’ as the topic for a school project.
Given her solitary life, it’s not surprising she is drawn to anyone who gives her attention, such as the male teacher who encourages her studies but whose motives are suspect. Strangely, she maintains a connection with this man for many years afterwards, compelled for some reason to follow his progress in life, even after his true nature becomes apparent. Lily, a fellow pupil Linda is drawn to, seems to be as equally troubled as she is.
Linda becomes fixated by the house across the lake and the family who inhabit it, observing it covertly to begin with and then contriving a meeting with Patra and her young son, Paul. Linda spends more and more time in the house, vaguely aware there is something unusual about the frequent absences of Leo, Patra’s husband, and about his attitude to his son, but unable to understand fully the import of the things she sees or overhears. It’s this sense that there’s something not quite right about the family that contributes to the unsettling atmosphere I mentioned earlier. And indeed, there is something very not right about the family, as events – which are tragic in nature – will demonstrate.
The book’s structure sees Linda looking back at these teenage experiences, recognising now the things she failed to comprehend at the time and regretting the things she failed to do. We also get glimpses of Linda’s adult life. This movement back and forth in time became quite confusing and I really craved getting back to the earlier events. However, I enjoyed the wonderful writing which conjures up the natural beauty – as well as the harshness – of northern Minnesota. ‘Winter collapsed on us that year. It knelt down, exhausted, and stayed.’
About the Author
Emily Fridlund grew up in Minnesota. She holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. Her collection of stories, Catapult, was chosen by Ben Marcus for the Mary McCarthy Prize.
She lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York. (Photo: Goodreads author page)
What Cathy Read Next... 
Good review. I like the premise of the book.
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