Skip to main content

Snare by Lilja Sigurdardottir #BookOfTheMonth

Snare was the group's second trip to Iceland in less than seven months, somebody clearly has designs for a road trip! (Bagsie my name is first on the list!)

Whereas Names for The Sea, our first venture in to Icelandic reads, was non fiction detailing life in Iceland for an English lecturer and her family, Snare is set around the (supposed) drug trade in Iceland, with protagonist Sonja being a mule for the underbelly of the most sparsely populated country in Europe.

Those of us at the meeting had all finished the book and remarked how easy it was to read, liking the lack of waffle and attributing this to the book being Icelandic (a common trait of Icelandic books apparently). We spent time discussing the book's three main characters Sonja, her lover Agla (who is not a lesbian) and customs officer Bragi. All of whom were not your standard protagonists.      

I loved how Sonja wasn't necessarily a heroine. She was, at least initially, revealed to be responsible for the shocking end of her marriage and although slightly vague as to the reasons why, she didn't have full or even primary custody of her son. Not your standard caped wearing crusader then. The way she coolly dealt with smuggling the drugs into Iceland, shaving off a few grams here and there before delivering them showed an inner steel and a willingness to commit further crimes to better her interests.

It was however Agla's character that interested me the most. How really it was Agla who was the one in the Snare, both at the bank and with Sonja and I loved how these two aspects developed throughout the pages. We naturally went on to discuss when is it OK to commit a crime? All of us found ourselves routing for Sonja although not necessarily liking her nor agreeing with what she was doing. Was it because she had a good reason (her son)? If she had been childless and just doing it to make ends meet would it be OK then? Is smuggling drugs to be sold to addicts better than falsely selling stocks and shares to line your pockets? Complex questions to be discussing over your lime and soda (wine) but it reflected the complex characters that Snare provided by the bucket load.

We all enjoyed reading about the drug smuggling (not sure what that says about us!) I presumed drugs were carried internally (too much TV watching clearly) and had no idea about the need for coffee, vacuum packs and alcohol wipes. A lot of research had clearly been carried out.

The group also loved the cat and mouse between Sonja and Bragi and would have liked more of this if possible. I loved Bragi and in particular found the moments between him and his wife equally sad and touching. The love still demonstrated was just beautiful and anyone in that position must relate to the loneliness he felt and the pain in knowing that the well being of your loved one is out of your hands. 

Away from the characters, the book was certainly tense especially as the plot unravelled. I won't spoil the reveals but there were some very excellent twists that we didn't guess beforehand which always goes down well.

The group scored it 7 with scores ranging as high as 9. Quite a few of us left our lime and sodas (wine) intent on reading the second in the trilogy, Trap, and if you check by here tomorrow I'm lucky enough to be on the Blog Tour for it! 

The link to the book takes you to Imagined Things in Harrogate because a world without bookshops would be so sad indeed, so they cater for your every reading, writing and stationery need!

Next Book Of The Month is Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks. Yes, THE Tom Hanks. 

P.S Special shout out to Quentin Bates who translated the book fantastically! 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Lock down book club - books from a different country

So we continued with the Zoom version of book club this month and it was lovely to see so many of us tackle it. The theme was books set in a different country (if you can't travel, let a book take you).  I read The Accident on the A35 by Graeme Macrae Burnet, a detective story with an element of tricksy fiction set in France. I really enjoyed it and you can read my full review here. We travelled to America a couple of times most interestingly to see whether Hilary Clinton (or Bill for that fact) would have made President if they had not got married. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld is out in hardback now. Norway was a popular spot - Norwegian Nights by Derek B Miller about a retired american marine who moves to Norway and intervenes to save a young boys life sounded interesting. So much so that at least one member of the group has gone on to buy the first in the series, American By Day. We even made it as far as Japan and Botswana (and discovered a Scottish connection for Alexander McCa

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

"In a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather for New Year. The beautiful one The golden couple The volatile one The new parents The quiet one The city boy The outsider The victim. Not an accident – a murder among friends." We had all read the book and all agreed we hadn't really read a book where the victim was revealed at the same time as the murderer. We liked this and found it a definite page turner. The victim not being revealed so late however meant that everyone had to, theoretically, be capable of wanting to murder everyone else which made for a whole host of not nice characters. We all struggled with the characters in someway. We didn't like them. There were too many. They were too self-centered, too two dimensional. Not liking the characters often means we don't like the book and there is no denying it was definitely a hindrance. A few of the group also commented on a plot hole or two. When exactly did

Lock down book club - autobiographies

After what felt like 13 million weeks in lock down we attempted to conduct our first online meeting via Zoom. We chose a broad theme of 'autobiographies' to give as many of us as possible a chance at obtaining a book without too much difficulty. I actually didn't have an autobiography on my shelf and so borrowed The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert. The book was all about raccoon eating, teepee living, deer skin wearing Eustace Conway. He has lived a fascinating life and Gilbert had carried out interviews with a wide range of friends and family but I found the lack of pictures puzzling. You gotta have pictures in an autobiography. The group had chosen autobiographies from a real wide range of people. Partly due to availability, partly due to differing interests. We had Gok Wan and his troubled childhood as a non white gay person. Louis XIV (the Sun King) and his debauched court and two Michelle Obamas one of which was given up on. I think the broad topic made fo