Queen

A strange widow arrives from the U.S. to Bäck, a remote coastal village in 1930 Sweden, in this magnificent 1964 novel from Trotzig (1929–2011), her English-language debut. The locals know little about Lydia, but the reader gathers she had married into the Lindgren family. Their ancestral farm is now run by 50-something Judit, known as the Queen for her imperious demeanor, and her younger brother Albert, a taciturn virgin. Their youngest sibling, Viktor, whom Judit cared for while their mother dealt with postpartum depression, left for America in 1920. Viktor met Lydia in New York City during the Depression, when they were both underemployed, and the pair became lovers, moving into a room together and sharing food. In the novel’s final sections, the reader learns the details of the couple’s brief marriage and Viktor’s death, and the story takes surprising and poetic turns over the course of Lydia’s time in Bäck, where she grows acquainted with Albert and Judit. Vogel’s translation masterfully renders Trotzig’s lush and lyrical descriptions of the rural Swedish landscape and Depression-era New York, the latter of which looks to Viktor like “the uncertain ocean of hunger and death.” Readers will be grateful for this introduction to a distinguished writer. (Feb.)