Swedish Portraits: Five Short Stories

These five fictional stories depict day-to-day life in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Samuel tells the story of a tailor’s son who marries a woman considered a “whore” because she has an illegitimate daughter. Alulf tells of a Swedish immigrant living in America who creates a fictional and successful life for himself through photographs he takes. Hilda describes the life of a seven-year-old girl sent to be a maid for her elderly aunt and uncle. The struggles that a woman must face when her father dies is told in Elin and Teo. And Tora describes the hardships a young country girl endures when she is sent to boarding school.

The collection is beautifully written and eye-opening and is intended for mature audiences.

Judit Martin, originally from the American Midwest, has lived in rural Sweden since 1969. See her other Penfield titles: Augusta’s Daughter, a novel, and The Bridge, a short story.