Synopses & Reviews
Feminist autofiction from one of Sweden's blazing talents.
Blending autofiction and essay, The Bear Woman is a journey of feminism and literary
detective work spanning centuries and continents. In the 1540s, a young
French noblewoman, Marguerite de la Rocque, was abandoned on an island in
the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with her maidservant and her lover. In present-day
Stockholm, an author and mother becomes captivated by the image of Marguerite
sheltered in a dark cave after her companions have died.
This image soon becomes an obsession. She must find out the real story of the
woman she calls the Bear Woman. But so much in this history is written so as to
gloss over male violence. And the maps and other sources she consults are at
times undecipherable.
Karolina Ramqvist explores what it means to write history — and to live it.
Review
"Ramqvist skillfully blends a story of survival with an autofictional meditation on womanhood.... It adds up to a careful study of a woman's writing life." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Ramqvist crafts a story of sparse detail that moves at a rapid pace…. This page-turner shows one young woman's struggle to face harsh realities." Library Journal
Review
"The ghostly Scandinavian setting and [protagonist] Karin's closely narrated sense of impending doom, baby cooing patiently at her hip, make Swedish star Ramqvist's English-language debut an atmospheric and suspenseful read." Booklist
Synopsis
Feminist autofiction from one of Sweden's blazing talents.
Blending autofiction and essay, The Bear Woman is a journey of feminism and literary
detective work spanning centuries and continents. In the 1540s, a young
French noblewoman, Marguerite de la Rocque, was abandoned on an island in
the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with her maidservant and her lover. In present-day
Stockholm, an author and mother becomes captivated by the image of Marguerite
sheltered in a dark cave after her companions have died.
This image soon becomes an obsession. She must find out the real story of the
woman she calls the Bear Woman. But so much in this history is written so as to
gloss over male violence. And the maps and other sources she consults are at
times undecipherable.
Karolina Ramqvist explores what it means to write history--and to live it.
"Karolina Ramqvist writes with frosty precision the kind of literature that is unforgettable. Her portraits of women hit deep into bone and marrow." -Dorthe Nors
"Ramqvist's acute rendering of embodied sensual experience combined with her evocation of her double character's increasingly desperate circumstances create a story of high tension, startling insights, and lasting resonance." -Siri Hustvedt
"One of my favorite discoveries from this year." -Samanta Schweblin
'The deeply personal journey of a writer, surprising and illuminating, and for me, familiar in the most reassuring way as she loses herself in this compelling story' - Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky
About the Author
Karolina Ramqvist is one of the most influential writers and feminists of her generation in Sweden. She has written five novels to date and is widely celebrated for her powerful ability to provoke quiet yet fierce questions rather than provide loud and easy answers. In her skillful hands, contemporary issues of sexuality, commercialization, isolation, and belonging become highly charged and, at the same time, completely unaffected. In 2015 Ramqvist was awarded the prestigious P.O. Enquist Literary Prize for her novel The White City (Grove). The Bear Woman (2019) is her fifth and latest novel.