Under the Snow
by Kerstin Ekman
List Price: $12.00
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0312200382
Publisher: Picador USA
From the author of Blackwater comes
this atmospheric and chilling tale of small-town lies and jealousy set
in the icy northern landscape of Lapland. Police Constable Torsson receives
a disturbing call from the remote town of Rakisjokk: an artist named Matti
purportedly walked off into the tundra and froze to death after a game
of mah-jongg turned violent. Torsson skis to Rakisjokk to investigate
the death, but when he arrives, the townspeople greet him with a conspiracy
of silence. Unable to find any evidence of foul play, Torsson leaves Rakisjokk
and delegates Matti’s file to a dusty bottom drawer.
Then David, an old friend
of Matti’s, turns up months later and pushes Torsson to return to Rakisjokk
and find out what really happened. Under the midnight sun of a Scandinavian
summer, they uncover the shocking truths of a town determined to bury
its secrets.
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1. Under the Snow is as much a murder mystery as it is a carefully crafted portrait of a small town. What kind of village is Rakisjokk? What effect has its near total isolation had on the people who live there? How do cultural differences between Samis and Swedes manifest themselves in this tiny town?
2. Matti’s frozen body is found in the dead of a sunless winter, and Torsson and David uncover the truth about his murder during the height of summer, a season which brings weeks of endless daylight to far northern Sweden. What role do the seasons play in Ekman’s narrative? How does she use light and shadow to tell her story?
3. Matti presented very different sides of himself to David and the people of Rakisjokk. Many in the town insist that David didn’t know the real Matti. What do we learn about Matti from these two camps? Is one version truer than the other?
4. When he first steps off of the ferry in Rakisjokk, David remarks that “you might think this is where the world comes to an end” (p.61). In many ways, the landscape of northern Sweden is an important character in the novel. What sort of character is the landscape and how does it shape the novel?
5. Kerstin Ekman wrote Under the Snow almost entirely in the third person except for Chapter 12, in which Matti’s killer explains how the murder was committed. Why do you think Ekman wrote the chapter this way? Does the device work? Who do you think the murderer is talking to?
6. Nearly everyone in Ekman’s novel has secrets. How do these secrets impact the characters’ relationships? Can we draw any universal conclusions about the nature of human ties from the relationships characters develop in Under the Snow?
7. On David’s first day in Rakisjokk, Vuori tells him, “Everyone who comes to the mountain, to stay, I mean, is usually turning their back on something. They all have something to get away from” (p.63). What does that assertion say about Matti’s decision to come to Rakisjokk, bringing Anna with him?
8. On pages 134-136, we learn about the passesadje in Sami religion. How does this particular myth relate to the novel as a whole? Are there other instances in Under the Snow in which myths come into play? What are their functions?
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"Engrossing…great fun…plenty of satisfying revelations and a deft solution. "
——Margot Livesey, The New York Times Book
Review
"[Ekman’s] style is so spare and clear…that when the reader realizes how complex the setup really is it’s almost shocking. "
——The New Yorker
"A satisfying yarn…Ekman evokes the dreary, open yet stifling environment with skill, smoothly layering clues and hints, leading the way to a tense and chilling finale. "
——Peter Handel, San Francisco Chronicle
"Stark, moody…Ekman’s understanding of Sami culture and her portrait of the two Swedish investigators take the novel far beyond a genre entertainment. "
——Sandra Scofield, Newsday
"Remarkable….More than a mere murder story, Under the Snow is a fine presentation of the tensions of life in an isolated village. "
——Ken Wisneski, Minneapolis Star Tribune
