The Crow Girl

The prosecutor knows nothing about plants, but over the years he’s learned that the art of conversation is to ask questions first and then transform the information received into general and uncontroversial statements of fact. Some people would call it empty chatter, but von Kwist believes it to be a social gift.

somewhere she had studied economics, the sort of thing you were supposed to study if you were clever, and it had ended with her hanging herself in her student room.
Simply because all the rest of us made her believe that her dreams weren’t worth following, he thinks.

But that wasn’t the real problem.
Hurtig knows that his sister’s great dream had been to be a musician or a singer, and she had had the support of her family. But the signals sent out by society were that that wasn’t a valid career choice. Nothing worth setting your sights on.
Instead of standing on a stage

The only city in the world that might have worse winter weather than Stockholm is possibly St Petersburg, on the other side of the Baltic at the far end of the Gulf of Finland, built on a swamp. The city was first founded by Swedes, before the Russians took over. Just as masochistically inclined as the Swedes.
You’re somehow supposed to enjoy the misery.

only city in the world that might have worse winter weather than Stockholm is possibly St Petersburg, on the other side of the Baltic at the far end of the Gulf of Finland, built on a swamp. The city was first founded by Swedes, before the Russians took over. Just as masochistically inclined as the Swedes.
You’re somehow supposed to enjoy the misery.