Marianne Fredriksson zet in Anna, Hanna en Johanna het verhaal van verschillende vrouwen uit verschillende generaties neer. Zelf kreeg ik het idee dat het ging om veel meer vrouwen dan de drie in de titel, waardoor het nogal verwarrend werd. Ook werd iedereen maar weer vernoemd, of hadden verschillende personages toevallig dezelfde naam, en dit bemoeilijkte mijn leesproces nog al. Dit neemt gelukkig niet weg dat er meerdere mooie momenten en inzichten in de roman stonden. Ik was met stomheid geslagen toen ik las dat Hanna als zij naar de kerk ging de hoerenknoop moest dragen, omdat zij op haar twaalfde werd verkracht door de zoon des huizes waar ze werkte als ‘dienstmeid’. Wat een voorrecht dat ik mag leven in een tijd waarin misbruikte vrouwen, door in ieder geval een grote groep mensen, als slachtoffer worden gezien in plaats van als uitlokker. De roman gaf, door een stem te geven aan deze verschillende vrouwen, ook een beeld van de verandering van opvattingen door de jaren heen, waardoor begrip kan worden bewerkstelligd tussen moeder en dochter, oma en kleindochter. En dat je naast het zijn van moeder, dochter, oma of kleindochter, bovenal toch een vrouw bent.

It started slowly for me, but I ended up really enjoying it. It is very female-centric (as you might expect) there were times I felt the male characters were treated a bit unfairly. I loved the language, how good she is at describing the simple, mundane tasks of life and how they fit into the whole.

Set in Scandinavia this is the story of three generations of women. All of the women have rich complicated lives and remind us of the difficulties families experience but also how they are bound together by love which is not always an easy thing.

I really enjoyed reading the book, but I'm having a hard time remembering the details. It really is just a description of the lives of three women in successive generations, without anything too exciting happening. Of course,  there was plenty going on in the women's lives. They just weren't things an outsider would consider exciting. I was able to learn a bit about Swedish history that I was unaware of before, so it was successful in broadening my mind a bit.

While the physical circumstances of the women changed over time, many of their experiences were mirrored. It was your typical domestic problems with your mother-in-law, or husband, or miscarriages. I'm not sure why we have the format of Anna, the author, retelling each woman's story in between that of her own. It would have worked just as well for me as a straight retelling of their lives. I think the structure was popular at the time.

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.

Beyond the story (which I loved), the writing was just beautiful. It flowed well and was deep & touching without going overboard.

A really beautiful book.

I can appreciate the craft that went into this novel, but I couldn't quite immerse myself fully in the story. There were places that I found quite fascinating - as Hanna's and Johanna's stories were unfolding, I was fully engaged. However, the sections of the novel that took place in the present never quite connected with me - the story felt like it lost momentum, and therefore lost my interest. It was a great idea that didn't live up to it's potential.

I found the story really interesting, looking at different generations of women and how their stories all had elements that repeated. I did find the writing challenging at times - things jumped around, people were referred to by their first name and the suddenly their last making it hard to keep track of.
I enjoyed Johanna's story the most, imagine grousing up during both world wars - I thought Fredriksson did a good job capturing what life would have been like.