Blackwater: A Novel

by Kerstin Ekman, Joan Tate (Translator)

Overview

On Midsummer's Eve, 1974, Annie Raft arrives with her daughter Mia in the remote Swedish village of Blackwater to join her lover Dan on a nearby commune. On her journey through the deep forest, she sumbles upon the site of a grisly double murder—a crime that will remain unsolved for nearly twenty years, until the day Annie sees her grown daughter in the arms of one man she glimpsed in the forest that eerie midsummer night.

Like Gorky Park and Smilla's Sense of Snow, Blackwater is a unique trhiller in which the hearts and minds of the characters are as strikingly compelling as the exotic northern landscape that envelops them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312152475
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	12/15/1996
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.99(d)

About the Author

Kerstin Ekman is the author of seventeen novels that have been published in Scandinavia and Europe. Blackwater—her first novel published in English—received the Swedish Crime Academy's Award for best crime novel, the August Prize, and the Nordic Counci's Literary Prize. She lives in Valsjobyn, a small village in northern Sweden.

Reading Group Guide

Midsummer Eve, 1974, in the far north of Sweden, near the Norwegianborder. Annie Raft arrives with her six-year-old daughter, Mia, in the remote village of Blackwater to join her lover, Dan, on a nearby commune. But Dan does not meet them. In the eerie light of the midsummer night, a frightened Annie wanders into the forest, where the myriad paths cross like veins in a body, to find the commune. A strange dark young man rushes by, without seeing her. By the rushing waters of the river, Annie comes upon a tent, and what she sees inside will haunt her for years to come -- until the morning Annie spies her daughter in the arms of the man from the forest, and a crime unsolved for nearly twenty years begins to roll toward a dark and devastating conclusion. Psychologically complex and deeply sensual, Blackwater is a unique and unique and unforgettable thriller, in which the hearts and minds of the characters are as striking as the exotic northern landscape that envelops them.

Discussion Questions:
1. Blackwater moves back and forth in time between past and present, and recreates events. What does this narrative structure reveal about the nature of memory?

2. Critics have noted that this novel diverges from the crime or mystery genre. Would you agree? In what respects might it diverge? What does the element of murder add? Can you imagine this novel without the central mystery?

3. The novel touches upon environmental issues of clear cutting, uranium mining, and the international underground trade in peregrine hunting. How do these issues deepen our underground trade in peregrine hunting. How do these issues deepen our understanding of place? What sort of character is place in this novel? How is human nature revealed to be similar to the natural world?

4. At one point, Annie says, "Why do we keep looking for meaning and connections? It's the way our minds work, seeking pattern and order. Yet we scatter our lives, helplessly and absently." This statement hints at an alienation between our thoughts and our lived lives. What other themes of alienation run through the book?

5. When Johan is trapped at the bottom of the well, he finds his only companion is an eel, which later becomes his pet. How does the relationship with this animal humanize Johan in a way that human relationships cannot? Can you think of other examples where animals play such a role?

6. When Annie decided to move to the rustic commune, she had lost her teaching job, and desired a simpler life. Aside from the murder scene she encounters, what sort of complications does she face as a result of her decision? Is her life truly simpler?

7. Blackwater takes place near the border between Sweden and Norway. Many figurative borderlines come into play as the novel progresses. Which are the most important?

8. The setting of the novel is unfamiliar to most English-language readers. How does the exotic locale influence our experience of reading? Do we ever find ourselves at home in this strange land?

9. How does Dan's failure to meet Annie and Mia when they arrive in Blackwater influence the course of events? Are there any other instances of such crucial absence in the book?

10. How is the relationship between Annie and Mia affected by the memory of the murders? What other sorts of intimacy are affected? Can we draw any universal knowledge about the nature of evil and its effects from witnessing the relationships between characters as they unfold?

About the Author:
Kerstin Ekman lives in Valsjobyn, a small village in northern Sweden, near the Norwegian border, an area which is one of Europe's last and most considerable wildernesses. Blackwater was inspired by the true story of the unsolved murder of two Dutch hitch-hikers in their tent in a town to the north of Valsjobyn.

Ekman is the author of seventeen novels that have been widely published in Scandinavia and Europe. Blackwater -- her first novel to appear in English -- received the Swedish Crime Academy's Award for best crime novel, the August Prize, and the Nordic Council's Literary Prize.

Editorial Reviews

Thrilling...a superbly written and atmospherically engaging crime novel.” —Sven Birkerts, The Washington Post Book World

“Wonderful..powerfully enigmatic. . .extremely intelligent. . .Blackwater workds so brilliantly both as a mystery and an evocation of an unfamiliar world.” —Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

“Sriking ...Graham Greene meets Dean Koontz.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Never uninvolving. . .keeps us guessing. . .Ekman tosses out conventional plot mechantics and stuns us with unexpected tragedy and twist after twist.” —Peter Handel, San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle

“Mesmerizing. . .like Smilla's Sense of Snow, it is beautifully written, absorbing, and accessible. It makes you hold your breath.” —Newsday

From the Publisher

Annie Raft and her six-year-old daughter arrive in the remote Swedish village of Blackwater one midsummer night to meet Annie's boyfriend, who never shows up. In the morning, they stumble across two campers who have been stabbed to death in their tent. At the center of the subsequent murder investigation are the town's physician, who could have mistaken the campers for his wife and her lover; the members, including Annie's boyfriend, of a back-to-the-earth commune; and the Brandbergs, a family of rough-and-tumble locals who don't cotton to outsiders. It turns out that the youngest Brandberg, Johan, terrified of his father and half-brothers, has recently run away from home and in fact was seen passing close to the murder site on the night the campers were killed. Eighteen years later, with the double murders still unsolved, a string of coincidences leads to Annie's death and the eventual unraveling of the mystery. This is splendid fiction, dark and compelling, filled with off-center characters and ominous events, told smoothly through multiple points of view. Its setting-the logging-ravaged Scandinavian woods-matches perfectly the sense of gloom that permeates the plot. Despite having written 16 previous novels, Ekman is making her English-language debut here, and the translation seems flawless. It's no surprise that this novel, first published in Sweden in 1993, has won the Swedish Crime Academy's Award for Best Crime Novel, the August Prize and the Nordic Council's Literary Prize. Major ad/promo; author tour; foreign rights sold in 14 countries. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Blackwater is a densely plotted psychological thriller set in northern Sweden, near the Norwegian border. Centered around the unsolved murder of two sleeping campers, the novel focuses on the anguish of Annie Raft, a teacher who discovers the bodies, and Birgir Torbjornsson. Eighteen years later Annie again sees the mysterious young man she saw running through the woods that night. He is her daughter's lover. Annie's identification sets in motion a spiral of tragic events that lead to the shocking denouement. In her first novel to be published in the United States, Ekman, the winner of several literary awards in Sweden, creates an aura of fear and malaise as she depicts a suspicious, isolated community shocked by a crime but unwilling to give up one of its own. She infuses the novel with the eerie atmosphere of the North, where it's either always dark or light but never truly warm. Blackwater is rich in psychological nuance and character. Highly recommended.-Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.

Library Journal