Spanning more than 100 years in the lives of three remarkable women--a mother, daughter, and grandmother--this luminous, heartfelt novel is shaped ...
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reviews
Mar 04, 2009
Corinne
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I'm still reeling from the depth of this book. Hanna's Daughters is a story of three generations of Swedish women, trying their hardest to find out who they are in a world that never seems to fit them completely. Hanna, Johanna and Anna - grandmother, mother and daughter, their lives winding through Swedish history: war and famine, prosperity and vague pleasures, from a mountain cabin on a lake in the mid 1800s to the streets of modern Göteborg.
The narrative is both personal and real More...
The narrative is both personal and real More...
Jan 11, 2008
Cynthia
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I didn't get this book. The book tells the life story of 3 women Hanna (grandmother of Anna, mother to Joanna), Joanna (other of Anna), and Anna living in Sweden.
What I liked about the book: Hanna's lifestory was very interesting. Born to a poor country family during the last half of 1800's, Hanna's life was a grim struggle. She was a servant for her uncle and cruel aunt. She was raped, then viewed as a whore by the town, and had a boy by the time she was 13 years old. Later More...
What I liked about the book: Hanna's lifestory was very interesting. Born to a poor country family during the last half of 1800's, Hanna's life was a grim struggle. She was a servant for her uncle and cruel aunt. She was raped, then viewed as a whore by the town, and had a boy by the time she was 13 years old. Later More...
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Mar 13, 2008
Brenna
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A memoir of a family on the Norway/Sweden boarder by the 4 generations of women, Maja-Lisa, Hanna, Johanna, and Anna. The author reveals how generational differences within a family can cause misunderstandings and strain. How can one transition from a farming life to city life? How can children who grew up in town relate to their grandparents/parents who seem "country" and "uneducated"? How can the grandparents/parents help their children navigate a completely unknown wor
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Jan 21, 2009
Linda
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Growing up in a three-generation household in which my grandmother lived with my family for nearly 40 years, Hanna’s Daughters held a special fascination for me. The author found an interesting voice for the three, really four, generations of Swedish women who were introduced in the first and third persons. The younger generation discovered the older generation through letters and journals as well. That which rang most deeply for me was the disconnection and sometimes isolation between mother
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Jan 26, 2012
Elaine
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Somewhat hard to follow at times. Maybe lost in translation?
Karl XII, King of Sweden-Karl XII was born in 1682. He was the son of King Karl XI and Ulrika Eleonora. He became king when he was only 15 years old, because of the death of his father in 1697. He continued his father's concentration of power to the monarchy. This was the old struggle for power between the aristocracy and the king, and now the aristocrats were losing. When he was crowned, he himself put the crown on his head More...
Karl XII, King of Sweden-Karl XII was born in 1682. He was the son of King Karl XI and Ulrika Eleonora. He became king when he was only 15 years old, because of the death of his father in 1697. He continued his father's concentration of power to the monarchy. This was the old struggle for power between the aristocracy and the king, and now the aristocrats were losing. When he was crowned, he himself put the crown on his head More...
Aug 13, 2009
Xirxe
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Das Thema des Romans ist schnell erzählt: Die Lebensgeschichte dreier Frauen einer Familie in Schweden aus aufeinanderfolgenden Generationen, Großmutter, Mutter, Tochter. Daneben wird der Leserin und dem Leser in beeindruckender Art und Weise die Entwicklung der schwedischen Gesellschaft über zwei Jahrhunderte vor Augen geführt.
Beeindruckend finde ich wie es der Autorin gelingt, jeder ihrer Protagonistinnen eine eigene Sprache zu geben, die nicht nur die Zeit, sondern ebenso die Lebensver More...
Beeindruckend finde ich wie es der Autorin gelingt, jeder ihrer Protagonistinnen eine eigene Sprache zu geben, die nicht nur die Zeit, sondern ebenso die Lebensver More...
Aug 28, 2009
Iris
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Hanna's Daughters: A Novel of Three Generations is the type of book that one would expect to be on Oprah's book club list, due to its focus on women's histories and lives. Beginning in 1871 and ending in 1986 the lives of Hanna, Johanna, and Anna are traced through personal and social history. Hanna's story is told in a narrative story form, but Johanna and Anna speak from the first person. There is a thread of magic running through the book which never quite solidifies, but maybe that is req
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Jan 25, 2009
Bonnie Jeanne
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This is a wonderful read. It starts out a bit slow, and a bit confusing. I wished many times I had written a family tree to keep track of the characters. However, by the time I was halfway through, I had a pretty good handle on the names. The story switches generations, but the style of narration changes, too, so I never got confused. [return:][return:]What I love is the history of Sweden, and the bits about how the Socialist Party came to be in Sweden, and that there isn't ever blame placed on
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Dec 16, 2010
Laurel-Rain
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Three generations of Swedish women whose lives are linked through a century of great love and great loss vividly people this family saga.
Told from the points of view of Hanna, her daughter Johanna, and granddaughter Anna, "Hanna's Daughters: A Novel" is a spellbinding tale that almost immediately grabs the reader.
In the beginning, we meet Johanna, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and visited by her daughter Anna, a writer who is divorced from her husband Rika More...
Told from the points of view of Hanna, her daughter Johanna, and granddaughter Anna, "Hanna's Daughters: A Novel" is a spellbinding tale that almost immediately grabs the reader.
In the beginning, we meet Johanna, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and visited by her daughter Anna, a writer who is divorced from her husband Rika More...
Jan 23, 2011
Alesa
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This was a fascinating book, and would be enjoyed by two audiences: women in general, and people of Swedish descent. It traces three generations of mothers/daughters, from 19th century Sweden on the farm to urban living in the present. The language is gorgeous. The relationships are (predictably) fraught with tension and guilt. But what was most fascinating to me was learning about rural life in old Sweden, and how hard it was. I didn't know, for instance, that the years of the Irish Potato
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Apr 12, 2011
Kirsten
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This book is about three generations of Swedish women starting from the tough life of a farmer's wife to the city transplant and the development of modern urban life and socialism in Sweden. I am not so much interested in Swedish history and farm life as I am in Norwegian farm life, but the setting for the first generation turns out to be on the Norwegian border and to be not far away from the town my mother was born in.
The book is framed by Anna, the third generation who is writing More...
The book is framed by Anna, the third generation who is writing More...
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May 17, 2010
Femke
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Marianne Frederiksson beschrijft het leven van een kleindochter, dochter en moeder. In de drie generaties, die op vele vlakken sterk van mekaar verschillen (van simpele boerendochter tot hoogopgeleide stadsvrouw), laat ze zien hoe gelijk ze eigenlijk zijn en hoeveel hun gedrag bepaald wordt door wat hun moeders hen leerden. Hoewel de vrouwen streven naar onafhankelijkheid en zelfstandigheid, schetst de auteur dat feminisme slechts een illusie is en dat het zelfs tegengewerkt wordt door de vrouw
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Feb 16, 2010
Anna, de dochter en kleindochter in het boek, beseft na een bezoek aan haar demente moeder Johanna hoe weinig zij eigenlijk van haar weet. Dat brengt haar ertoe het spoor terug te volgen om zo te ontdekken waardoor de persoonlijkheden van haar grootmoeder, Hanna, haar moeder, Johanna, en haarzelf zijn gevormd. Haar grootmoeder, Hanna, was een boerendochter uit Dalfsland die op haar twaalfde op brute wijze is verkracht, maar later toch een gezin heeft gesticht met de molenaar John Broman. Haar do
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Nov 27, 2011
Adri
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The book started off rather slowly and was quite confusing at first - especially since the three women had such similar names - Hanna, Johanna and Anna - and there being a number of other characters with the same names. However, once that gets sorted out one is really drawn into the story which is sad beyond words, but also rather beautiful.
Definitely an author whose other books I will read. I find it very interesting to read about countries other than those which are anglophone as More...
Definitely an author whose other books I will read. I find it very interesting to read about countries other than those which are anglophone as More...
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Aug 03, 2011
Åsa
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Absolutely HATE IT!!! :-S Must be one of the most over rated authors EVER...! I´ve read two of her books and this was the first. I thought maybe the others would be slightly better, since I have friends who tell me they 'loooove' Marianne Fredriksson (maybe they´re joking), but the second one was also crappy!! Her books are amongst the worst nonsense I´ve ever forced myself to read - couldn´t even finish the second one, gave up a few pages from the end. The authors use of language is horrible an
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Dec 08, 2008
Jacki
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For me, this book was stunning. Maybe because it was given to me by my mom a couple of weeks ago after she read it... just knowing that she read it and it touched her enough for her to give it to me...
This is the story of 3 generations of women and how they related to each other. It was neat to hear about it from the mother's point of view and then from the daughter's.... and it made me want to know more about my grandmother who has been dead since I was very young.
Bey More...
This is the story of 3 generations of women and how they related to each other. It was neat to hear about it from the mother's point of view and then from the daughter's.... and it made me want to know more about my grandmother who has been dead since I was very young.
Bey More...
Oct 23, 2009
Hazel
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A family chronicle tracing the lives of three generations of Swedish women. The more I read these sprawling sagas the more I recognise the difficulty of retaining the context for different characters and in this one more than most I needed a family tree beside me to keep me straight, because even the names (or derivatives of them) were inherited and reappeared. I bought Hanna's Daughters because it deals with Alzheimer's but learned more about the genre of writing than about hinging a story arou
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Feb 07, 2008
Cissy
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I had a hard time figuring out if I liked this or not. It's the story of a grandmother, her daughter, and her daughter, starting with the grandmother (Hanna) when she was a child. It takes place in Sweden (it is actually a translation of a Swedish book) and I liked the history and culture. I would not say it is historical fiction, though. I just mean since it covered something like 120 years, it was interesting seeing how things changed (and didn't). However, almost all the relationships ar
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Jan 02, 2011
Tracyduka
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Even though this is written about Scandinavian women, this story echoes true in many families that have come from such meager roots. And though the child and the grandchildren have come so far financially speaking, they don't come so far away from the habits and the mindset of those beginnings. This was a very touching book. It reminded me of many stories that I'd heard of my own great-grandparents and of my grandparents. I think that this is a good read for anyone.
Aug 07, 2009
Hope
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I thought I was over that habit of resisting the last couple pages of a book I love. Guess not!
Hanna's Daughters is a beautiful story about 3 generations of Swedish women, their relationships, their joys and sorrows. I did not realize it at first, but I was deeply affected by the three women and their stories. Sympathetic emotions is what I experienced--not sympathy for the characters, but whatever they were feeling, I was feeling, long after putting the book down.
A bea More...
Hanna's Daughters is a beautiful story about 3 generations of Swedish women, their relationships, their joys and sorrows. I did not realize it at first, but I was deeply affected by the three women and their stories. Sympathetic emotions is what I experienced--not sympathy for the characters, but whatever they were feeling, I was feeling, long after putting the book down.
A bea More...
Jan 25, 2012
Lynda
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A rather slow story with too many people of the same name . They kept naming children after fathers and other family members. I learnt a lot about the social history of Sweden and felt that emotionally it was strong. The male characters are not mentioned very much in the book but do play an important part. It would be worth re reading to bring out the male side of the story. Yes I know it,s called Hanna's daughters so I shouldn't expect the men to be important!!
Dec 16, 2011
Iira
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Fredrikssonin kieli on helppolukuista ja soljuvaa. Dialogissa aina silloin tällöin pieniä oivalluksia. Nopealukuinen ja kolmesta päähenkilöstään huolimatta selkeä juonellisesti. Ei mikään elämää suurempi. Olisin halunnut pitää tästä enemmän, mutta se johtui ehkä osaksi siitä, että odotin jotakin elämää suurempaa perhekronikkaa. Kolmen sukupolven naisten väliset suhteet olivat kuvattu suhteellisen kehnosti, henkilöt eivät kommunikoineet toistensa kanssa vaan jokainen oli litistetty erilliseksi os
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May 14, 2009
Mary
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Assignment for SON. This is a novel of three generations and spands 1871 to the present. It is set in the framework of the youngests visiting her ageing mother in a nursing facility. Anna is writing a book to understand the similarities of the three women and how their lives were lived.
I read this book when it first came out, liked it, but read it quickly. This time I took notes and paid more attention to the contrasts and similarities of the characters.
I read this book when it first came out, liked it, but read it quickly. This time I took notes and paid more attention to the contrasts and similarities of the characters.
Sep 26, 2011
Anichkasam
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Книгата е добра, но не бих казала, че е невероятна. Беше ми приятно да я прочета все пак. Хареса ми идеята да се разкажат историите на три поколения жени и колко са били различни животите им. Кара ме да се замисля за моите майка и баба, как те са били възпитавани и през какво са минали.
Книгата всъщност е препоръчителна за жени, които не са щастливи във връзката си, предстои им развод, или точно са преминали през него. Действа много по-терапевтично от тази "Яж, моли се и обичай" More...
Книгата всъщност е препоръчителна за жени, които не са щастливи във връзката си, предстои им развод, или точно са преминали през него. Действа много по-терапевтично от тази "Яж, моли се и обичай" More...
Jun 27, 2009
Linda
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3 generations of Swedish/ Norwegian women and their stories. Many women/girls think their mothers and grandmothers are eccentric, or at best different, and believe they cannot understand what it is like to be "us." We tend to dismiss them, without really understanding their behavior and we ignore their perspectives without learning from their experiences. Here is a novel that brings all these stories together to arrive at a solution.
Mar 16, 2009
Barb
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I just "liked it". It wasn't a book I couldn't stop reading and I mainly read it at work when it was slow. There were a lot of good quotes and life lesson sentences I feel like I could write down from this book such as, "Water", he says, "is much wiser than people, it doesn't give a damn about borders." or "I understood that we see only according to our own prejudices." or quotes that made me think like, "I wasn't interested in you as a person, only h
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Feb 07, 2010
Lisa
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I really had no idea what to expect when I got this book for bookclub, but I have to say that it was very slow starting out for me. The story of 3 generations of Scandanavian women, I found the story very depressing. Each woman seemed to lead such an unhappy life, and then unwittingly passed it on to their daughter. Although there were small parts of the story I liked, for the most part, I found it a little disjointed and that the ending was somewhat vague.
Nov 14, 2011
Eleanor
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I think this was not well translated - and I also think it was difficult to keep characters apart in that many had similar names ... and since the writing was a bit disjointed, it was sometimes hard to tell who was being written about ... Gee, this is a badly written comment so believe me I am NOT throwing stones here ... If I were, my glass house would have just shattered.
Aug 29, 2009
Kathy
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Actually the book is about Hanna, her daughter and grand daughter and their complex relationships with each other, their spouses, siblings, children, etc. I especially liked how each generation was very opinionated about the other (all in retrospect) and how the reader is able to see the whole picture of the family and know more of their history than they are able to.
Oct 26, 2011
Suzierussell
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Fantastic. I've found myself reading books by older writers recently. I think this author was 74 when she wrote this, and her years of observing people shows in her tremendously sympathetic characters. They popped right out of the book before my eyes and enacted their stories before me. I didn't so much read this book as slip into the character's lives and watch.
