On the bookshelf

Welcome to go through The Hippo's towering bookshelves. As a guest with me, in addition to choosing suitable evening reading, you can also bring as many books as you can carry home with you. Below are some book tips.

The Fifth Child

What happens in a family when the fifth child born is something out of the ordinary? Can a child be evil from the first day of life? Can a mother love her child unconditionally? Doris Lessing asks herself these difficult questions in this poignant but highly unpleasant book. We get to follow the odd child Ben from childhood to adulthood and how everyone in his family is affected.

Quicksand

A young girl stands accused of having participated in a fatal shooting at a high school in one of Stockholm's nobler areas. Through the trial, we get to know those involved and the circumstances that led up to the fateful day when several students lost their lives. A picture emerges of unhappy young people who, despite material prosperity, lack love and trust from the adult world, and mainly from absent parents. Exciting, engaging and well written.

To Give Birth to a Child

To Give Birth to a Child is the first part of three where we get to follow Maj who, newly married and pregnant in 1938, is thrown into a new world, a step up the social ladder. All of a sudden, she must know everything about cooking, cleaning, setting the table and social etiquette. But above all, her task is to take care of her husband. A perfect home is good to show off when insecurity is digging around inside. In these three parts, we meet Maj who struggles with her class background, inadequacy as a mother and her husband's alcoholism.