Imago by
Eva-Marie Liffner
hbk out January 05
Published by Harvill
at £10.99
This book emphasises the divide between Anglo-American writers and
those on the Continent, as it reads very strangely to us here. It can hardly
be described as a crime story - in fact it's hard to categorise it at all, being
part history, part straight novel of a somewhat mystical nature.
The writing is excellent - or rather, the translation is superb, as one never
really knows whether translation has enhanced or detracted from a
foreign-language book. Imago was written in Swedish, is all about
Denmark and has been translated into English by Italian-sounding
Silvester Mazzarella, who has done a superb job.
The text hops erratically between 1864, 1938 and 2000, two maps
offering some help in following the action, which is based on the shifting
national frontier between Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark during the
past century and a half. In 1938, a preserved body is found in a bog,
apparently that of a 19th century soldier. A German professor, a Danish
policeman and Jewish clerk examine it and write a report. All this is
discovered in retrospect by the lead character, Esme Olsen, who is a
cleaner in the Institute for Historical Studies in Copenhagen, who studies
history at night when the staff have gone and who steals various
documents that interest her. She persuades the caretaker to drive her in her
dead father's 'sixties Chevrolet Impala down to the border country.
The story gets more and more obscure, with flashbacks to the Germano-
Danish war of 1864, where many thousands were killed - and also to the
disappearance of the German professor, who is eventually found down a
well in 1938.
I honestly did not know what to make of this book - the text is beautifully
written, but I wasn't sure what the plot was about, you could almost take
your pick of interpretations. The author's previous novel won four
Swedish literary prizes and this one was nominated for another, so she
must be good.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
Imago by
Eva-Marie Liffner
