I read this before a trip to Sweden, as one of the few Swedish novels I could find that wasn't a thriller. I wasn't extremely enthused about it, but I was very wrong. Beautifully written, this sweep through three women's lives is enlightening, moving, and educational. Granddaughter Anna, the semi-narrator, is the weakest story of the three but the richness of the Hanna (grandmother) and Johanna (daughter) stories more than make up for it. The suffering of women, indeed.