NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES Named an NPR "BEST BOOKS OF 2017" Named the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year by the Swedish Crime Writers Academy An incisive courtroom thriller and a drama that raises questions about the nature of love, the disastrous side effects of guilt, and the function of justice A mass shooting has taken place at a prep school in Stockholm’s wealthiest suburb. Eighteen-year-old Maja Norberg is charged for her involvement in the massacre that left her boyfriend and her best friend dead. She has spent nine months in jail awaiting trial. Now the time has come for her to enter the courtroom. How did Maja—popular, privileged, and a top student—become a cold-blooded killer in the eyes of the public? What did Maja do? Or is it what she failed to do that brought her here? Malin Persson Giolito has written a perceptive portrayal of a teenage girl and a blistering indictment of a society that is coming apart. A work of great literary sensibility, Quicksand touches on wealth, class, immigration, and the games children play among themselves when parents are no longer attuned to their struggles.
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“Saskia Maarleveld expertly teases out the many questions swirling around this story’s unreliable teen narrator. Charged with involvement in a school shooting at an elite private school in Stockholm, Maja is initially unlikable. But Maarleveld coaxes out the audiobook’s nuances, capturing Maja’s emotional shifts from petty scorn to longing uncertainty to a dawning sense of responsibility and its limits. Framed as a court case, the audiobook includes helpful time stamps—such as ‘week one of trial’—that orient listeners as Maja’s monologue weaves through time retrieving vignettes and insights that complicate an easy take on what happened. This absorbing psychological study unfolds as an intimate confession to the reader. Maja may not win our affection, but Maarleveld’s skillful narration ensures that she gains our understanding. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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AudioFile