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Simon And The Oaks | 
| Author: Marianne Fredriksson
Publisher: Phoenix
Category: Book
New (1) Used (33) from £0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 423279
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 357
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0753810751
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780753810750
ASIN: 0753810751
Publication Date: September 7, 2000
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
This quietly moving story of family, friendship, and love, by the author of Hanna's Daughters , has already become an international best-seller and will no doubt capture the hearts of American readers as well. Simon Larsson is a pensive andd thoughtful boy growing up i Sweden during World War II, fortunate to be safe within a remarkably loving and cohesive community. Half Jewish, he is being raised by his Scandinavian aunt and uncle, who adopted him as their own at birth. In a novel rich in mystical overtones, his adoptive parents take on truly archetypal dimensions. Karin's deep love and compassion is matched by Erik's understated strength and stoicism, and together they create a firm family base from which 11 year-old Simon can grow and dream. But Simon, who doesn't know the story of his birth and adoption, seems set apart from his Scandinavian world by his dark hair and olive complexion, and he often retreats into fantasies to alleviate his feelings of disconnection. When he befriends Isak Lentov, a young Jewish boy from Germany, their families become close in spite of the contrast between Isak's father's religious faith and the Larssons' strictly secular Swedish socialism. These two opposing viewpoints help form a unique framework for Simon and Isak as they come of age and work toward finding meaning in their lives, and as Fredriksson explores relations between fantasy, myth, and reality. --Catherine Sias
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Great Read September 3, 2008
I read this in German, but am confident the beauty and poetry of the language used is equally well translated into English ... I found this a very moving and strangely realistic story yet also very warm... This story is written like an ancient tapestry: all one, yet with many different aspects to be looked at and intricate little gems to be found ...
Beautiful and very special! October 25, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The book starts with Simon being angry with an oak and denying that he can hear the oak sing - and by doing so saying goodbye to his childhood.
This is not only a very good book about the struggle of a boy finding out and becoming who he is, written with depth and wisdom, but it also has an extra dimension by describing a wider way of perceiving the world - like oaks that sing wistfully.
It's not "fantasy" though, just a beautiful and very special book.
 An excellent book, highly recommended February 27, 2000
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
An excellent book with considerable insight to the individual characters and their feelings & outlook on their lives at that difficult time.
one of the most moving novel I've ever read September 7, 1999
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Since the first lines of this novel you get involved in the atmosphere and you start loving all the characters pictured in it. It's a really great novel with all the ingredients to become a great movie. I love the way it describes Sweden and the psychology of the characters, with a kind of lightness but also with a lot of deepness. The light motiv, the discovery of being jewish and therefore "different" is dealt without rethoric and with great humanity. I recommend it to all the people who, like me, love really insightful stories and have a particular regard for the jewish literature or the stories about being jewish.
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