The Memory of Love

Alternating between events on an isolated beach in New Zealand and a traumatic childhood in Sweden, this sentimental ode to love lost and found from Olsson (Sonata for Miriam) is a touching, if far-fetched, tale. Marion, a newly retired family doctor, has shut herself out from the world in her coastal home, where her main pastime is gazing at the ocean. Marion finds new purpose, however, after Ika, an introverted young boy trapped in an abusive home, unexpectedly enters her life. The author’s prose is at times pinched and lapidary, while at others, effusive and overstated, and sometimes both: “The coffee is hot and strong, the scones fresh. It is a superb breakfast.” On the other hand, Olsson handles Marion and Ika’s story in a beautifully natural fashion, though the long arm of fate is extravagantly elongated in a tragic subplot, involving an ill-starred affair in Marion’s earlier life, that would put Thomas Hardy to shame. Agent: Stilton Literary Agency (Sweden). (Mar.)