This book, though a mystery by a Swedish crime writer, works not as dark and brooding Nordic Noir but as something different: a coming-of-age story with an unsolved murder in its wake. The story starts in 1962 Sweden. Fourteen-year-old Erik's mother has a terminal cancer. To get him away, his father sends Erik and his older brother Henry and friend Edmund to lake house near a forest. The two younger boys spend much of their time daydreaming about a voluptuous young substitute teacher who bears a...

"Det blir en hård sommar" ("It's going to be a hard summer")Chose it as my "must-read-during-the-course" while studying Swedish.Can't say it was easy for me to read it since I'm not that good at Swedish and it contains a bit specific language, some swear words and common sayings/proverbs.But the book itself is good and it was interesting to follow the development of the story of one summer in 1960-s, told by a grown-up man but through the eyes of the 14-year-old boy. It's a bit daring when it co...

I enjoyed reading this book, but it moved too slow for me. I rate it 3.5 stars rounded down. This book is written in the 1st person from the standpoint of Erik, a 14 yr old boy in 1957 rural Sweden. He spends a summer with his best friend, Edmund. Henry is Erik's 22 yr old brother. Henry is a somewhat distracted person living in his own world, trying to write a book. The 3 of them spend the summer together at a rustic cabin on a remote lake in Sweden. Before they go to the cabin, a substitute te...

Forget what you think about Scandinavian crime fiction and it’s dark, creepy, foggy marshes. A Summer With Kim Novak has a different kind of bounce to it. Expertly translated and well written, this book is at once an enchanted coming of age novel about a teenage boy growing into puberty and the summer he spent at a cabin on the lake with his older brother and his young friend. It’s also about the schoolboy crush he had on the young substitute schoolteacher who had more than a passing resemblance...

Really enjoyed this coming of age whodunnit which was impossible to put down once I got to the so called “incident”. Loved the way that the boys’ idyllic summer holiday was described and how the book followed what happened to all the characters in later life. I found the ending clever as well. Just too many unbelievable coincidences to merit five stars but a thoroughly enjoyable read and I will definitely seek out other books by this author.

This is probably one of the best coming of age novels that I have come across. I've always struggled with book by Nesser and have never enjoyed them as much as I had expected, however this has made me think againa about giving him another try. The voice of a teenage boy trying to act like a grown up comes through really really effectively here. It really does sound like a genuine voice of a 14 year old. I had a few inklings about the final twist, but have to say that I had dismissed them, so it

This was a book steeped in traditions of coming of age tales; some of the innocence of childhood during one last endless Summer which is confronted with the illness of a parent; the violence of relationships and the finality of death.Erik and his mate Edmund are spending their vacation by a lake with Erik's much older brother; he's a man of 22 years of age they're eight years his junior full of pranks and schemes. Out all day of their bikes, rowing across the lake or dreaming of girls for the fi...

I have only recently come across this author through his detective novels. The Summer with Kim Novak was a wonderful book, humorous, thoughtful and philosophical. A book I would like to possess and read again.

So it goes, it seems. Whatever we lose, there’s always something there to replace it – events, phenomena, even people. Your head is the only place where everything stays put, but even in there things can go missing. There’s little chance that the memories of that summer in 1962 will fade away for Erik. So much has happened then, all those years ago, on the border between the innocence of childhood and the existential angst of maturity. Some people slip almost effortlessly from one to the other,

This is a beautifully written stand-alone novel that's both a mystery and a coming-of-age tale. Narrated by a grown-up Erik, the book hearkens back to a summer in the early 1960s, when Erik and his friend Edmund were 14, a summer that was idyllic until the Incident happened. No, Kim Novak isn't actually in this novel. The young woman referred to here is a substitute teacher at Erik's school who bears a strong resemblance to the actress. The story does not have a conventional whodunit reveal at t...

The oft quoted expression is that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Truer words have never been spoken. Two of the cooler things about this book: the title (which definitely is intriguing) and the lovely cover (which seems to portray an ominous mystery to unfold). It is a pity, then, that these aspects were about all I liked from The Summer of Kim Novak, a book that turned out to be a huge letdown. First, I think calling this book a crime book is a tad misleading. It felt more like a coming-...

The Summer of Kim Novak is a haunting and evocative novel, beautifully written to draw you into another place and time – a true coming of age tale with added mystery and I loved every moment of it.Hakan Nesser weaves a magical web of intrigue around the reader, this is a tale of friendship, family, love and loss and from building the relationship between the two boys Erik and Edmund to the nuances of how much they can understand about what is going on around them, this is storytelling at it’s be...

Stand alone. A Summer with Kim Novac. 1998/2015. iBook. .....4/5 **** √Interesting read. Two teenage boys and an older brother of one, spend a very wonderful summer at a cottage by the lake doing what teenage boys do. Both mothers are ill, both fathers coping the best they can, sending the kids off for the summer under the guardianship of the older brother trying to write his first book. Adventures and quiet times combined with the re appearance of a stunning looking temp teacher resembling Kim

I don't think 14 year-olds think about sex more than, say, 44 year-olds, but because of its MYSTERY at that age, the thinking is more intense and magical. Erik is a 14 year-old boy in Hakan Nesser's amazing 1998 crime novel The Summer of Kim Novak. If you are 14, and your mother is dying of cancer, and you don't understand it, and you don't know what to do about it, and your dad decides this summer would be a good time for you and your friend Edmund to spend with your 22 year-old brother at a fa...

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Cancer-Treblinka-Love-Fuck-Death: “The Summer of Kim Novak” by Håkan Nesser"After my father had suggested that we might spend the summer together, I realized I didn't actually know anything about him. I knew what everyone knew: his father read girlie mags, and he was born with six toes on each foot.” In “The Summer of Kim Novak” by Håkan Nesser  The first time I discovered Scandinavian Crime Fiction was when I bought 3 books in German

It was an ok book, I read it in Swedish and found it a pretty enjoyable read but the ending totally sucked in my opinion...

A Summer with Kim Novak by Hakan Nesser.Erik takes us through his early teen years before and after the incident. His mother in the hospital dying of cancer. His Dad trying to keep the family together. His older brother (by 8 years), Henry the freelance journalist. And Edmund. Erik and Edmund spent the summer of their young lives together in a cottage by a lake with Henry. Henry was writing his book and getting to know a beautiful woman. Ewa Kaludis was a teacher for a time at Erik's school, who...

2-1/2*Set in Sweden. In the 1990’s Erik is recounting the fateful summer of 1962 that changed his life. In the beginning Erik refers to “The Incident” that happened that summer.First, a substitute teacher arrived at his school and set Erik’s 14 year old heart and mind on fire – she was a double for Kim Novak.Erik, his older brother Henry and his friend Edmund are sent off to spend the summer at the lake.It takes quite a while before the reader finds out what “The Incident” was and not until the

I've always been impressed by Hakan Nesser's fiction. His detective and police procedural fiction tends to be more intellectually challenging and more literary than most books in the genre. His characters, motifs and allusions are meticulously and beautifully crafted. Until now, I've read his Van Veeteren series, but I have avidly followed his bibliography of works, hoping that more of his books would soon be available in English translation. The book that I've been anticipating the most was Sum...

I got to say that Hakan Nesser has a lot of memories that come close to meeting the ones that I have of my youth, not the drastic one he had though. Erik's story was one of love for his brother that was 8 years older than he was and also for Ewa Kaludis, who he saw through a window making love to his brother, with his friend Edmund who was staying with them. Ewa was the fiancee of Bertil "Berra" Albertsson who was a handball legend and who beat up a drifter in an uneven fight. All these things w...