By Amy Krakow
Carbondale Branch Library
Imagine life in a rickety, makeshift hut on an uninhabited fjord on the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard where four months of the year you live in total darkness; where glaciers, polar bears, and a faithful dog named Eberhard are your only companions. You have chosen this solitary life purposely due to unfortunate circumstances which have changed your life forever.
In Nathaniel Ian Miller’s debut novel, “The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven”, be prepared to immerse yourself in the masterfully woven prose of early 20th century Stockholm. This tale of adventure, solitude, unimagined love and the resilience of characters rich in personality and vitality will draw you in from the very first paragraph.
At 32, Swedish-born Sven Ormsom finds himself restless and gloomy, deploring the daily grind of life in 1920s Stockholm. Unlike his father who is content with being a tanner, Sven yearns for a life of adventure in the Arctic. But, his romantic imaginings of what this life would be is light years away from the harsh reality.
Suffocating in Stockholm and unable to hold down mundane jobs, his sister Olga suggests he find work in a mining camp in Longyear City on Svalbard. Here he meets an eccentric Scottish geologist, a bibliophile comrade as well as a patron of the arts and Scottish whiskey. Tragically Sven is caught in an underground avalanche and left disfigured, disheartened and broken.
Finding himself next as an apprentice cook in tiny Camp Morton, he meets and becomes a longtime friend of Tapio, a Finnish fur trader who mentors him in the art of trapping and other necessary skills needed to survive the brutal Arctic winters. Tapio is his only real connection to the outside world, relaying news of significant events including the Russian revolution and the Finnish civil war. Years into his isolation, with regular letters from his sister, Sven receives an unexpected visitor who extinguishes his loneliness and changes his life forever.
Hunker down, wear plenty of clothing and build a warm fire while reading this unimagined life spun from a remarkable author.