What I have been Reading - The Bear Hunters Daughters by Anneli Jordahl (Harper Via)

 Thanks to the book buzzing superstars at Harper Collins Library Marketing, I read The Bear Hunters Daughters by Swedish author Anneli Jordahl. A mix of a fairy tale and a coming of age novel, the book tells the story of seven sisters who have been raised deep in the woods by their wild father who teaches them to hunt and forage in the woods while eschewing society and its comforts like cell phones and formal education. When the bear hunter dies and his wife dies soon after, the sisters are left with deciding to stay true to the lessons their father taught them or to allow the townfolks to help them, even if it means joining society. 

The book was inspired by  Aleksis Kivi’s classic Finnish novel Seven Brothers (1870) but takes place firmly in the modern era. The language is rich and sensual. Readers will be drawn into the forest with the sisters as their story is the primary focus of the novel. An unnamed narrator tries to write down their story after seeing them in the market but the book clearly belongs to the seven sisters and their distinct personalities and desires. 

It's delightful to read a book with so many relationships between women that have nothing to do with romance or relationships with men. The sisters fight, play, and work together as their differences combined with the harshness of the forest make those differences more distinct. 

It's also about siblings, rivalry, loss, grief, and the myths we grow up believing. I love reading books based upon Scandinavian fairy and folk tales. For read alikes, I would suggest The Witches at the End of the World by Chelsea Iversen (Sourcebooks) or Motheater by Linda H. Codega (Erewhon Books). 

The Swedish cover for the book is amazing so I am sharing it here.