What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
The Minotaur
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. Scandinavian Mystery caretaker of disturbed man [s]
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Brittany
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Jan 17, 2014 09:21PM
Several years ago, maybe as long as 7 or 8. I got a mystery novel in hardback from the CharMeck libarary. It was about a girl who had recently graduated from school in a Northern European country (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland). She took a job as a care taker for a mentally/ emotionally disturbed man in his large family home in another Northern European country (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland). The mother was not very kind to her--intentionally mispronouncing her name and making her feel out of place. I want to say it was known that the man was a pyromaniac and perhaps posing as catatonic or barely functioning. His past actions may have caused a death in the family. Does this sound familiar to anyone at all?
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Was this a young adult novel or an adult novel?Remember anything about the cover?
Was it written by an American or by a Nordic author?(Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark.
Nordic: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland)
If I remember correctly, the cover was simple. Off-white-ish. With some smallish black writing. And maybe a greenish border--I'm stretching here...
The countries that are coming to mind are Finland, Norway, Denmark...the main character many have been from Sweden, but I really don't remember--again, a stretch. I keep remembering that the book was with translated from Finnish or the characters continually refer to Finnish.I wish I could remember more. I read 5-10 books a week 300-900 pagers, so I never recall everything.
Pretty sure it was an adult book--but just because it was shelved that way at my library doesn't mean it is...
could it have been The Minotaur
Not everything fits - the main character Kerstin is Swedish but is working for an English family. I don't think there was any reference to Finland or other countries. The family she is working for always calls her "Kristin" instead of "Chairstin"
If it were a Nordic book then it is probably adult. YA is more an American (English) label. Was it new when you read it? Male or female author? There are not that many books translated from Finnish to English so I should have heard of it. And of course Finnish is totally different from Scandinavian languages so that might gove some clues.
You might want to take a look at these lists: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... and https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9... and this https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Tess, I think you nailed it! I kept thinking about a Labyrinth related to this book, but I read Kate Mosse's Labyrith and Andrew Davidson's Gargoyle around the same time. So I thought I was confusing the those books. I also went back and checked that this was around the time I was doing a lot of research on the Finnished education system. That seems to explain the other random elements. Human brains are amazing!
Thanks so much!
I will re-file this under solved at my computer tomorrow.
I'm so glad, Brittany! This is the book that made me look up what a "barbiturate" is. It's definitely weird what stands out in our minds as important, and what other facts get thrown in. :)
