“This is just one strand of Annika Norlin’s first novel, The Colony, a disturbing, engrossing portrait of a tiny community living beyond society... Too often novels packed with this many ideas sacrifice emotion in favor of mounting a ponderous argument; Norlin instead writes visceral episodes that speak for themselves. (How to sever an umbilical cord in the forest? With your teeth.) The story’s open-ended questions—about the power of charisma and love and the boundaries between the individual and the greater good—arise organically, without forcing stale answers... My admiration of The Colony is equally an appreciation for Alice E. Olsson, whose work to bring the story into English is so precise and vibrant that I often forgot I was reading a translation.”
Read the full review in The New York Times Book Review.”
