You all know my fondness for romance, which I try and suppress as much as possible. Did anyone come across the newly translated book by Margit Sandemo, Spellbound, which finally made it to the English speaking world in June this year? It launched with a party at the Norwegian embassy, and no, I wasn’t invited. I read the first book in this series many years ago, when it was serialised in a Swedish weekly magazine.
I don’t recall if it had any literary merits, but 25 million readers can’t be wrong, can they? There are so many books about The Legend of the Ice People that they will publish new books very frequently. The second, Witch-hunt, is out early August and the third in early September. You may be wondering why I’m even writing about this here, but if it’s good enough for the Guardian, it’s good enough for the witch.
I’m never sure whether to think of Margit as Swedish or Norwegian, as she is a bit of both. Don’t know if her books make it into bookshops, or if they are all sold in supermarkets and petrol stations. The book I read has something in common with Lady Chatterley, in that there are only some parts of the books that I can remember, after all these years.
The Occasional Bookwitch 