Book Review: Sonata for Miriam- Linda Olsson

'Sonata for Miriam' is a wonderful lyrical book, which uses multiple styles of writing (changing first-person narrative, letters) to convey the story of dealing with loss, finding ones past and unclosed love (is it ever?). Adam Anker is the main protagonist who accidentally discovers a picture in a museum which leads him to question his past which leads him to Poland although he lives in New Zealand and grew up in Sweden. In addition to this momentous event he has to deal with great personal loss and re-evaluate the priorities in his life. As the book evolves one learns of his loss, his discovery of his past, his past loves, his childhood. There are sections where one understands the behavior and responses of those who were close to him, through their own voices. While the story is a very touching beautiful story leading one back to the WW2 Krakow, it is more than anything a wonderful book exploring solitude, emotions and love. I have not read 'Astrid & Veronika' so I am not sure if the writing styles compare or even if it is a similar exploration, but I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered about the lives of those past, as well as tried to understand love and loss. A word of caution is that this deals with a lot of emotions and I had to take a break from it and ponder and linger on some of the feelings created during reading this book.