Quicksand

January 23, 2017
Gioloto’s English-language debut, a bestseller in her native Sweden, reads like an adaptation of a ripped-from-the-headlines arc of Law & Order. Chapter headings resemble timeline captions on a TV screen—“Week 1 of Trial: Friday”—and the novel proceeds chronologically, starting with “The Classroom” where the crime happened. A high school student named Maria Norberg, aka Maja, is on trial for the murder of several classmates, and she meticulously recounts her experience in a remote first-person voice. With Maja treating the reader as a confidant, key bits of exposition arrive idiosyncratically, and the backstory comes together small piece by small piece, like a jigsaw puzzle. Maja pleads not guilty; her charming lawyer Peter Sander places the blame squarely on fellow student Sebastian Fagerman, one of the victims. It’s not until more than 100 pages in that the names (and number) of the victims are listed. This methodical and straightforward plotting, in the tradition of Barbara Vine, may either tantalize or frustrate American readers used to a crackling pace and a surfeit of twists. Nevertheless, Gioloto’s novel is haunting and immersive.

January 1, 2017
Sharp social commentary through the tragic story of a young woman's trial for mass murder.Swedish novelist Giolito begins her English-language debut with a powerful view of a crime scene. To the narrator, 18-year-old Maja, her fellow classmates are still in the present tense, the horror not yet real. As she tells her tale we understand that she is at the center of a school shooting perpetrated by her boyfriend, Sebastian Fagerman, and the question is whether she is complicit. Both teenagers come from privileged backgrounds, she from a loving home she has no patience for, and he the son of "the richest man in Sweden," who verbally abuses him. Giolito keeps the narrative moving quickly, alternating between the present tense of Maja's jail cell and the courtroom and her memories of parties and travels with her jet-setting boyfriend, though as Maja says, "there are no chapters in this mess." That mess takes in the uneasy place of race in modern-day Sweden and the voracious press that amplifies the details of everything in Maja's young life. There is no suspense in the shooting of Amanda, Maja's best friend, or of Sebastian. She did it and admits to it. The literary anticipation here is in the telling of the tale, the facts that turn the story to something else, and yes, the verdict. The rhythm, tone, and language are just right, due in great part to the fine translation by Willson-Broyles. Giolito gives us the unsettling monologue of a teenage girl as she works her way through her role in murder. It is a splendid work of fiction.

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Starred review from January 1, 2017

This startling and compelling English-language debut by a Swedish novelist centers on the plight of 18-year old Maja Norberg, who stands accused in the mass shooting deaths of her teacher and several of her friends and classmates at the private school she attended. Is Maja truly responsible for this tragedy or was she coerced into participating by her boyfriend, who was among those who died? In a voice that deftly portrays teen bravado, distrust, and naivety, Maja narrates a tale that interweaves her daily life in jail, her experiences in the courtroom, and her drug-influenced memories of the shooting, its antecedents, and its aftermath. Giolito has created a superb unreliable narrator, one who forces readers to search for the truth within the emotionally charged commentary as Maya attempts to examine her situation objectively and prepare for a harrowing final outcome. VERDICT Brilliantly conceived and executed, this extraordinary legal thriller is not to be missed by fans of the genre. [Library marketing.]--Nancy McNicol, Hamden P.L., CT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2016
Giolito's astonishing English-language debut (she has published three other books in her native Sweden) is a dark exploration of the crumbling European social order and the psyches of rich Swedish teens. It alternates between courtroom and jailhouse scenes and life before a school shooting, telling the first-person story of Maja, a rich-girl-accused-shooter who is perfectly portrayed as obsessed with the actions of others and simultaneously jaded beyond belief by them. Maja is said to have shot classmates in a pact with her boyfriend, and the broad details of the crime aren't in dispute; rather the trial hinges on what exactly happened and why. In crafting a first-person narrative told by a school shooter, many authors would go too far, creating an overly likable character; Giolito masterfully walks this fine line, developing a protagonist whom readers will remain intrigued by and ambivalent about, but whom they won't necessarily like. Giolito's past as a lawyer and as a European Union official poke through the pages as she exposes the cutting racism that refugees in Europe endure, even in supposed left-wing-idyll Sweden. Praise must also go to translator Willson-Broyles, as the incisive language that's on display here surely involves translation precision that's second to none.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)