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A Novel
by Lisa Ridzén
Book Reviewed by:A profoundly moving debut novel that follows an elderly man's struggle to maintain autonomy over his own life: an emotional story of love, friendship, fatherhood, and atonement that is already an international sensation.
Bo is running out of time. Yet time is one of the few things he's got left. These days, his quiet existence is broken up only by daily visits from his home care team. Fortunately, he still has his beloved elkhound Sixten to keep him company … though now his son, with whom Bo has had a rocky relationship, insists upon taking the dog away, claiming that Bo has grown too old to properly care for him. The threat of losing Sixten stirs up a whirlwind of emotion, leading Bo to take stock of his life, his relationships, and the imperfect way he's expressed his love over the years.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (12/04/2025)
I've checked off three of my four reading group picks. Spent by Alison Bechdel, The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer and The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Let's just say I will look forward to January picks and hope they are more to my liking. I did like The Serviceberry and found it well w...
-Barbara_B1
The book is beautifully written and about a topic that we still don't talk much about—getting old and dying…And navigating a changing relationship with an adult son is another dynamic here related to aging—learning to let go when you really want to have some control over something. While this was a melancholy book about the end of life period, it was also filled with hope and beauty and love. It struck a chord with me personally about the importance of dignity and humanity later in life, and how critical it is for caretakers of elders to try to make that period as comfortable and positive as possible (Anne M). This is a story of taking stock of your life with all the regrets, redemptions, love, forgiveness, and healing that we all hope we can reconcile when the time comes. Lisa Ridzén tells this story in powerfully, purely written prose that will stay with you for a long time (Nancy M)...continued
Full Review
(675 words)
(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
Fredrik Backman, bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, in The New Yorker
One of those 'you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to buy twenty copies and give them to everyone you love' books. Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain
A powerful, sneakily emotional meditation on life and death, and the foundational relationships in our lives. This is a book that will echo in your soul.
In Lisa Ridzén's debut novel When the Cranes Fly South, main character Bo struggles with a lack of autonomy near the end of life as he passes his days at his home in northern Sweden. Readers interested in reading more stories that take place in the country need not look far to find some. Here are just a few other examples of popular contemporary literature set in Sweden.
The Room by Jonas Karlsson
The inspiration for the 2022 film Corner Office starring Jon Hamm, this work-based dark comedy by Jonas Karlsson focuses on an insufferable bureacrat named Björn who discovers a secret room at the government office where he works. BookBrowse reviewer Elena Spagnolie writes, "The Room has elements of Bret Easton Ellis's American...
If you liked When the Cranes Fly South, try these:
by Tina Harnesk
Published 2026
This lyrical runaway Swedish hit follows a reclusive, elderly couple who cross paths with a pair of twentysomething newcomers in a small mountain town, revealing an unexpected, shared history and the reclamation of a nearly extinct culture.
by Shelby Van Pelt
Published 2025
Winner of the 2022 BookBrowse Debut Award
For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.
by Freya Sampson
Published 2022
Strangers on a London bus unite to help an elderly man find his missed love connection in the heartwarming new novel from the acclaimed author of The Last Chance Library.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
