Let's Hope for the Best

Reviews

This book! Swedish, confessional, shockingly honest about desire, love, loss. I've read it twice now and can't stop thinking about Carolina. Utterly compulsive Brutally candid. The book’s power lies in Setterwall’s lacerating honesty. It’s the most compelling book I’ve read in years Quite simply one of the best bereavement memoirs I’ve read. It’s impossible not to draw comparisons with Karl Ove Knausgaard, but there is a unique voice here, a style of disclosure all her own, incidentally beautifully translated. It’s an emotional battering ram, I thought, and I absolutely loved it Every spare, controlled sentence has the ring of truth ... A painfully clear-sighted, unsentimental novel ... It’s about grief in all its raw messiness, but it’s also (as how could it not be?) about time ... Setterwall’s refusal to impose twists or false neatness is at first admirable then, as a fragile new love begins to blossom for Carolina, gripping Highly autobiographical, Let’s Hope for the Best explores life after sudden bereavement: the protagonist, also called Carolina, is left a widow with a young son when her partner dies in the night. The novel tells their love story, articulating Setterwall’s huge grief and guilt, as well as her newfound caution towards love and intimacy Heart-wrenching and unsettling A moving and tender work of autofiction that depicts the obsessive interiority of grief The kind of book that you’ll never forget. It gets under your skin. It moves into the heart. The story is so vulnerable and direct that one cannot avoid caring for the people it is about, and to love them ... I have never read a book that, so beautifully, puts into words how difficult it is to live without – but also to live with – the one you love. One of the best, most touching and most relevant books I’ve ever read An electrifying read. A book that forces itself upon you, impossible to resist and difficult to pause A rich, honest, and poignant portrayal of the many dimensions of grief One of the best books I’ve ever read ... You’re drawn into her raw grief, anger, guilt, bitterness, fear and loss – all of it, without any filter ... Real and alive Breathtaking ... Astoundingly well told A magnificent reading experience Honest and unvarnished ... Setterwall writes about the many nuances of grief, but also about love, family life and expectations of life before and after tragedy Expand reviews