her freelance work as a subtitler and heads North. There she will meet many interesting characters and finally find and face her own answers.
She first meets a handsome reindeer herder named Henrik. On a wonderful overnight date they visit a hotel made entirely out of ice. Carved once a year by the locals and by artists from around the world the Ice Hotel is an event for the Laplanders and, for the reader, a unique literary experience. They are only able to obtain late reservations because, they are told, “by mistake they built two extra rooms this year.”
As Clarissa pursues her birth certificate clue she meets a priest of the Sami (the indigenous people) who was actually listed on her certificate as her father. However, things will not prove either that simple or that straightforward. Because the book is a puzzle
-box of a plot and a most enjoyable read it would be wrong to give too much away.
-box of a plot and a most enjoyable read it would be wrong to give too much away.However, I think that it appropriate and prospective-reader-safe to mention that this book has a central concern -- that of women and of rape. On her search for her father, Clarissa also meets a Sami healer, Anna Kristine. It is during her stay with Anna that the author is able to zero in on the book’s theme. Anna Kristine takes in Clarissa when she falls ill and feverish. Anna nurses Clarissa to health although she does not appear to speak English nor to really have much of a reason to care for this young American she has found, almost literally, on her doorstep.
So as Clarissa moves further into the intricate puzzle of her life, she will find that others also have secrets and that some secrets interlock and the key piece must be discovered and pressed upon before the central piece can be freed. One of the pieces that she must examine is a final look at her mother and Clarissa must reach some conclusions on her own.
The book ends in a surprising manner which well illustrates that working on her puzzle has changed the outcome of Clarissa’s life. The book, told in the past tense, is suddenly brought up to the present in the last few pages. The flurry of events described, the wrap-up of life from that time until the present day is quick and sure. It reminds me of how a person solving a Rubik’s Cube will pore over the first moves but then when all is almost in place the last few moves happen with a quick, clicking intensity.
LET THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ERASE YOUR NAME by Vendela Vida is published by HarperCollins Publishers. $23.95 Hardcover
