The Chrystal Palace

On a bitter winter day in 1962, the eighteen-year-old Harriet Blom arrives at the old estate of Vändesta in Sweden, a home for young unmarried pregnant women. Here she will spend the coming months, cut off from the outside world and brought together with other young girls who, like her, wrestle with the question: to keep the child or to give it up?

During the seemingly endless winter, Harriet confronts a variety of people: the rebellious Italian Sylvia who quickly becomes Harriet’s confidante, the aging matron Inez, and the nurse Beth with her stifled longing for life. As the snow continues to fall, the strict rules of the maternity home envelop them all.

Kristallpalatset (The Chrystal Palace) is a gripping novel about being a woman in a time of transition, about quickly being forced to become an adult and make life-altering decisions – a novel filled with the atmosphere of the era, written with strong narrative power and linguistic brilliance.