Suddenly nothing is as it was.
Inga’s husband had a heart attack and passed away. He no longer exists.
For two years she flees from the
grief. She appears to be strong and fills her life with work. But a vindictive
remark causes everything to crumble.
She takes refuge in the summer
home in Marstrand, which has belonged to her family for generations. There she
hopes to find the peace to bring herself back on track.
By chance she finds an old box.
It is full of pieces of paper, cut-out segments from newspapers and at the bottom a letter stampted in
Mombasa, Kenya in 1916. Inga becomes corious, especially because of some
strange sentences at the end of the letter. It is as if she wakes up from a
drowse. With newfound enthusiasm she begins to search for an explanation -
while she at the same time can forget her own predicament. The investigation
takes her back into time, through the history of her ancestry, to a significant
incident in the shadow of the First World War. Inga understands that the fate
of her grandmother on her father’s side has had more effect on her own life than
she could ever have imagined.
Altíð hjá tær is a far-reaching
novel about memories that dominate the present and about reconciliation with
the past. With a vivid and personal style Maria Ernestam has written a
captivating story which does not hesitate to explore large themes such as grief
and loss, friendship and fervent love.