Costco Connection - September 2009

book pick
Beginning with
what we’ve become
Linda Olsson explores the
importance of frıendship

By Dorman T. Shindler

Linda Olsson

Connection from her home in Auckland. “I was
very homesick.” Fortunately for Olsson, whose
children were now in college, she’d just enrolled in
a writing course. When her professor had every-
one in class write a novel, Olsson’s feelings of frus-
tration and homesickness were
“poured into the book.”

LIKE MANY YOUNG girls who get bitten by the dance bug, New Zealand author Linda Olsson dreamed of becoming a ballerina. But an early realization that she “wasn’t as good” as the professionals she’d seen at the Royal Swedish Ballet with her maternal grandmother caused her to turn to more

Her professor was so impressed that he sent the manuscript to a publisher. Shortly thereafter, Olsson became a published author with her first novel: Astrid & Veronika. Since its publication in

“sensible” career paths.

Graduating from the University of Stockholm with a degree in law, she found work writing contracts and proposals in the finance field, where she eventually met the man who became her husband. His job took precedence, and Olsson soon fell into the role of supportive wife and mother as her spouse’s career took them around the world: Singapore, England,

MALCOLM HANES/ETSA/CORBIS

2005, the book has become an international bestseller and been optioned for the movies, Olsson has written a second novel (Sonata for Miriam) and, in a turn of events she finds “particularly satisfying,” Astrid &

Veronika has become the foundation for a ballet that will debut in New Zealand.

Japan, Kenya.

After her husband’s latest job offer took their family to New Zealand, Olsson woke up on a dreary, rainy day and suddenly realized she hadn’t seen her family (mother, father, brothers, etc.), or Sweden, the country of her birth, in a very long time.

“I started feeling sorry for myself,” Olsson says with a laugh, during a phone interview with The

“It’s very much a love story to my home country,” says Olsson, acknowledging her poetic and nostalgic descriptions of Sweden. What’s more, Astrid & Veronika is a tribute to two of the most important people in Olsson’s life: Dagny, her paternal grandmother, who worked hard all her days, but lived life on her own terms; and Anna-Lisa, her maternal grandmother, who subdued her own dreams in favor of husband and children. Although Anna-Lisa moved to America, Olsson managed to spend large parts of her life with both grandmothers. She shared a passion for music and ballet with Anna-Lisa, and a love of the theater with Dagny. And when Olsson’s father died at the age of 52, she and Dagny turned to each other for comfort.

Although “there’s a little bit of both” of her grandmothers’ personalities present in the fictional Astrid, Olsson says that character is also based on other women she has known through the years. Because of this familiarity, says Olsson, “Astrid was very easy for me to write about. I could see her very clearly.”

Asked about the novel’s central theme, Olsson says, without hesitation, that it is “the importance of friendship.” In the case of Astrid and Veronika,

friendship breaches age barriers and helps heal emotional scars in both women.

FRANCE FREEMAN

“I wanted to show how they were able to help each other,” says Olsson. “Our old friends and our family, they know so much about us that you can never get rid of that baggage. But with a new relationship, we can begin with what we have become.” C

COSTCO HAS 50 copies of Linda Olsson’s Astrid & Veronika with signed book plates to give away. For a chance to win, send an e-mail to giveaway@costco.com, with “Linda Olsson” in the subject line. Or print your name, address and daytime phone number on a postcard or letter and send it to: Linda Olsson, The Costco Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088.

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

Purchase will not improve odds of winning. S weepstakes is sponsored by Penguin Putnam, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014. Open to legal residents of the U.S. (except Puerto Rico) who are age 18 or older at the time of entry. One entry per household. Entries must be received by October 1, 2009. Winners will be randomly selected and notified by mail on or before November 2, 2009. The value of the prize is $14. Void where prohibited. Winners are responsible for all applicable federal, state and local taxes. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. Employees of Costco or Penguin Putnam and their families are not eligible.

I AM DRAWN to unlikely
friendships. And when I
read Linda Olsson’s Astrid
& Veronika I was charmed
by Olsson’s skill at giving
credence to the value of
friendships between older
and younger women. When
30-year-old Veronika moves
to a rural town in Sweden,
she strikes up a friendship
with Astrid—who’s in her
80s and has a reputation as
the town witch.
In Olsson’s novel, as in
life, both women benefit
from the friendship. The
younger woman has the
advantage of learning life
lessons from the older
woman’s perspective. The
older woman finds value in
her life once more—or
perhaps for the first time.
Linda Olsson’s Astrid &
Veronika is available at
most Costco warehouses
and at Costco.com.