When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén

When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén is a tender and affecting exploration of what it means to grow old with grace—and grief. Set in the quiet countryside of Sweden, this novel follows 89-year-old Bo as he faces the end of his life with more questions than answers. He shares his home with his loyal dog, Sixten, who becomes a point of conflict when Bo’s well-meaning son, Hans, insists the dog be given away for safety reasons. It’s a heartbreaking demand, and for Bo, it feels like one more piece of his world being taken.

Bo is cared for by a rotating team of professionals, and the novel alternates between his internal reflections and the caregivers’ clinical notes, offering a stark contrast between Bo’s emotional reality and the routines of daily care. Through these shifting perspectives, we witness Bo wrestle with the long shadow of his father’s anger, the aching absence of his wife Frederika, who now lives in a memory care home, and the bittersweet love that remains for the people he’s lost or grown distant from.

The prose is spare but full of depth, capturing the ache of loneliness and the beauty of small, fleeting moments—sunlight on snow, the comfort of a dog at your side, the hush of early morning. The use of second-person narration as Bo speaks to Frederika creates a quiet intimacy that lingers long after the final page.

Though some characters, like Hans and Bo’s friend Ture, could have been more fleshed out, the emotional core of the novel is deeply resonant. Ridzén captures the ache of memory, the weariness of the body, and the quiet courage of facing life’s final chapter. It’s not a fast read, but it’s a meaningful one—gentle, introspective, and quietly unforgettable.

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