About the Author

Linda Olsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1948. She graduated from the University of Stockholm with a law degree, and worked in law and finance until she left Sweden in 1986. What was intended as a three-year posting to Kenya then became a tour of the world with stops in Singapore, the U.K., and Japan, until she settled in New Zealand with her family in 1990. In 1993 she completed a bachelor of arts in English and German literature at Victoria University of Wellington. In 2003 she won the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition. Linda's first novel Astrid & Veronika became an international success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies in Scandinavia, Europe and the United States. It was followed by the heartbreaking and moving Sonata for Miriam. Olsson divides her time between Auckland, New Zealand and Stockholm, Sweden.

Reviews

"Olsson's eloquent prose offers an intimate, poignant portrait of a woman at midlife who finds her way back...to a life filled with love."-Publishers Weekly

"[A] deeply poetic novel...and a credit to Olsson's narrative technique....Fans of Jennifer Haigh and Heidi W. Durrow will appreciate this darkly emotional novel."-Booklist

"Exquisitely rendered....quietly gripping."-Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Haunting and beautiful, [The Memory of Love] is a reminder of the fragility of happiness and the impossibility of living without hope." -Otago Times (New Zealand)

"Linda Olsson writes beautifully, capturing the fragile nature of her characters and the beauty of the rugged landscape around her with great precision and subtlety. A hugely evocative book. The story gets under your skin and will live on long after the final page has been turned." -Gisborne Herald (New Zealand)

"The emotional weather of the story is changeable and dramatic, with storm clouds sometimes threatening, unpredictable tides and winds of inner conflict, and chance meetings. . . . It is the storytelling, of course, that is most seductive, with the right balance between the disclosure and holding back of information to keep us reading to the end-appreciating at every twist a writer delighting in her craft." -Sunday Star Times (New Zealand)

"[A] tender, loving story . . . concerned with searching and healing . . . You sense an author of real integrity." -Weekend Herald (New Zealand)

"Olsson's lyrical style is perfectly suited to the reflective tenderness that characterises Marion's narrative voice. . . . The tragedies of the novel, combined with the powerful resonance of the windswept and lonely coast, makes [The Memory of Love] a heavily atmospheric novel of great emotional weight." -Listener (New Zealand)

"Olsson successfully intertwines New Zealand and Sweden to create a beautiful and compelling story." -Mahrangimatters (New Zealand)

"One of the most stirring and sensitive books I have read for a long time. [ . . . ] An outstanding read." -The Star (New Zealand)