More Bitter Than Death - Softcover

Camilla Grebe is a graduate of the Stockholm School of Economics. She was a cofounder of Storyside, a Swedish audiobook publisher, where she was both CEO and publisher during the early 2000s. She lives in Stockholm, Sweden.

Åsa Träff is a psychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy. She runs a private practice with her husband. She lives in Älvsjö, Sweden.

Conducting an experimental self-help group of women who have been victims of violence, Stockholm psychologist Siri Bergman and her friend and colleague Aina hear five women recount experiencing pain and degradation, usually at the hands of the men closest to them. Siri is particularly taken by Kattis, whose stories of her abusive ex-husband, Henrik, seem verified when Henrik’s lover, Suzanne, is brutally murdered, an attack witnessed only by Suzanne’s five-year-old daughter, who is kidnapped soon after. When Henrik, angry and armed, breaks into the group, more violence ensues. Meanwhile, narrator Siri struggles with the love for her dead husband that keeps her from committing fully to a relationship with Markus, even after she becomes pregnant with their child. Interspersed reports from counselors of a boy with increasingly severe behavioral problems add to a growing sense of dread that permeates the novel. Swedish authors excel at novels of dark suspense, and sisters Grebe and Traff (Some Kind of Peace, 2012) top off this fine psychological thriller with a final, chilling twist. --Michele Leber