First published 2013
Helena realizes her dream when she and her husband buy a small farm in northern Sweden to operate as a hotel. The marriage crumbles and divorce follows. Helena remains alone with the hotel, a shattered existence, and an unhappy teenage daughter. Anders has built a successful career as a financier, but wealth has left his life feeling empty. On a straight stretch of road in northern Sweden, he challenges fate by pressing the accelerator and thinking he no longer cares what happens. He wakes up in a hospital. After his stay, he checks into a small hotel in a northern village where he meets Helena. The village is also home to old Verner, who lives outside the community and is seen as an oddball. Yet Verner becomes the one who helps Helena and Anders realize that what they try to suppress in their lives can instead give them strength to break old patterns of thinking and move forward.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Northern Sweden, Northern Village
Period: Contemporary
310 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Brombergs