Swedish title: Krigsdagböcker 1939-1945
Hi guys! #cheatbook
Yes, you might recognize the name of the author. This is one of the books I listened to through StoryTel while I walked to and fro school during my exam period in April and May.
Astrid Lindgren is famous to many people. She is the woman behind Pippi Longstocking, The Brothers Lionheart, Ronja – The Robber’s Daughter and several others. Throughout World War 2 she kept diaries about her life and the events of the war. She writes about small things like child tantrums and big things like Germany’s invasion of Russia. Through her diaries, she gives neutral Sweden a face of some sort.
My only deepest regret about this book is that I didn’t listen to it in Swedish. In the intro of the book, the narrator reads some small sections of the book in Swedish and I feel my heart melt. Norwegian and Swedish is quite alike so I’m able to understand it and it’s such a beautiful language and especially her accent is just beautiful. This book made me laugh out loud several times and I learned some new stuff about her characters that I didn’t know. For example; did you know that Pippi Longstocking came to life during the war while her daughter was sick with a fever? She started out as a bedtime story and then she escalated into several books for children all around the world.
In these diaries, she reveals some great sorrows that to me was unknown and yet she makes me laugh out loud with some of her statements and views of the war. Since Sweden was neutral during the war Lindgren is talking a lot about Norway instead. She reports regularly in her diaries what happens in Norway and her opinion on these happenings. She feels sorry for the country and yet she has some opinions about her own government and the way Sweden behaves during their neutrality. She is not always very pleased I can say as much.
This a historic document written by a first-hand witness and that makes the book interesting to me. Yes, of course, we have to take the human factor into everything, but every human has its own opinion and that’s why the world is interesting. I liked this book. I have a tendency to like books that make me laugh out loud whether it is from a book or through my earbuds. If you like Lindgren from before as an author I recommend you read or hear this book, it will make you appreciate her even more.
Published: 2015
Genre: Biography
Theme: 2nd World War, family, children stories
– The Book Reader
