Delicate and powerful, a portrait of the last stage of life — the invisible protagonist of our time — a subversive novel that concerns us all and will stay with us. Lisa Ridzén comes to GO to sign copies of her Quando le gru volano a sud (Neri Pozza).

Bo is eighty-nine years old, and his solitude is broken only by visits from the home care assistants who look after him. Otherwise, there is little left that has any flavor. Not even the whipped-cream pastries that his son Hans stubbornly keeps buying and placing in his fridge.

Bo is angry with his body, which no longer obeys him; with his once-strong arms, now unable to do much of anything; with his swollen fingers, which can no longer even open the jar containing his wife Fredrika’s favorite shawl. The shawl that still holds her scent. It is the only thing he has left of her, since she was moved to a care home in Östersund, since Fredrika stopped recognizing anyone — and he, in turn, no longer recognizes the woman behind his wife’s features.

But above all, Bo is angry with Hans, who wants to take Sixten, his dog, away from him, convinced that a man nearing ninety can no longer care for a pet. And now Fredrika is no longer there to soften the harsh words between father and son. The void left by the companion of a lifetime, and the fear of losing Sixten’s affection — the one bond that still keeps him anchored to the world — pull Bo into a vortex of emotions. They push him to retrace his life, to call “happy” those moments when simply nothing happened, to admit his imperfect way of loving others.

Delicate and powerful, this portrait of the final age of life — the invisible protagonist of our era — is a subversive novel that concerns us all and will remain with us.

“They come by four times a day, the home care assistants. The first time Hans brought it up, about six months after you had been moved, I found it ridiculous. I laughed in his face, and afterward I was a little ashamed. He was only driven by good intentions. That was still a time when I had power over my own life.”

Liza Ridzén lives in a small village near Östersund, Sweden. She is a PhD candidate in sociology and studies the impact of masculinity in rural communities in the far north of Sweden, where she herself grew up.

The idea for the novel arose from the notes that her grandfather’s care team handed over to the family. Quando le gru volano a sud topped the Swedish bestseller lists, was nominated for Swedish Book of the Year 2024, and won the Adlibris Prize — the readers’ award — both as Best Debut and Book of the Year. It is currently being translated into 34 languages.