I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was filled with a great fictional story that was fleshed out around actual historical events and it was melded together masterfully. It was very interesting to see a tarot card layout in such a manner, or the equivalent of such cards - fortune cards as it were - that has the recipient make a pact with the cards that could see either victory or tragedy to the outcome, depending on whether they stick to the outcome that the cards have laid out. It was fun to try to figure out all the players in the game - the '8' that each card portrayed - that would ultimately play a role in what unfolded as our character tried to figure it out for himself as well. Tricky indeed! The addition of pictures of the cards was a great bonus and it was interesting to see how they were interpreted from the perspective of the time line the story was written in.The bonus learning lesson was the constant talk and exposure of the 'perfect geometry' that octagons possess. I found that endlessly interesting and the provided illustrations in that regard were equally thoughtful. Very cool to see it transposed over the card layout at the end and how people are endlessly linked to others in a not so random way. Gives pause for thought.It was a delightfully different story - and had me spell bound from the get go. Unique location and a great perspective on a very tumultuous time in history, a perspective we don't usually look from but one with equal intensity and consequence. Definitely worth putting on your to-be-read book list! I chose to read this novel as it includes some of my favourite things: It's about Sweden and Stockholm (where I, like the author, lived for a number of years), playing cards, old obscure designs of European playing cards, Carl Michael Bellman (who actually appears in the book), translations of old Swedish songs, and the significance of snatches of Bellman songs to the lives of the characters and the plot of history. These are a few of my favourite things.The book is a historical novel set around 1790-1800, the time of the French revolution as well as lesser known events in matters of Swedish state. The action is set in Stockholm, and it concerns the interconnected lives of the great and the lowly and their influence on the various interests competing for the Swedish throne, but equally, on a quest for love and connection. The visions of a seeress, the masons, and the conspiracy-grey areas between history and fantasy also play their parts.Yes I enjoyed the book a lot.If I am to criticise something, it might be in the glossing of some of the Swedish names. Now I'm probably as guilty of this as the author is, and I realise the temptation to do it is strong. I found myself doing back-translation of various names to try to work out what she was talking about. Slussen, Södermalm, Riddarfjärdan (for example, for me) don't really gain anything from being the Sluice (it isn't a sluice, anyway, it's a lock, although maybe it was a sluice in 1790 for all I know), the Southern district, or Knights' bay. They're basically place names. Slottsbacken (meaning castle hill) probably loses more than it gains by being Castleback. The name of the girl Plomgren was left in Swedish, and the meaning is made clear by the continual references to plums, so that's fine; but I can also see that Sparv might not have been as obvious (to mean Sparrow). It's a difficult problem, and also a small thing that non-(Swedish-speaking English native) speakers probably wouldn't even notice.ETA: The Fan, by Octave Uzanne (Bravo, Mme Engelmann!).... and the general amusement of the Swedes when discussing fans for reasons non-Swedish-speakers will not fathom.
What do You think about The Stockholm Octavo (2012)?
A nice read about a part of Swedish history I didn't know much about.
—Aneenaj
Um. Ridiculous. Fans, cheesy mysticism, and cartoonish characters.
—seansmith1
What a fascinating book! Totally original. I loved it.
—larlar
