Aprilheks (1997)

Desirée was born in the 50's with severe celebral palsy and epilepsy, and has never been able to walk or stand as her legs don't function. Her mother sent her away to an institution for deformed and retarded children, advised to do so by doctors who insisted Desirée would never be able to learn to even eat on her own. All of her life was spent in the hands of doctors, some of them kind and caring and some of them treating her like an interesting case study and not much more. She has another gift, however, which allows her to experience the world she can never go out into: she is an April witch, and she can insert her self into birds or people or even a drop of water, if she wishes to.
She is also obsessed with the thought that one of the three girls her birth mother fostered after she was abandoned lives the life that was really meant for her, and at first her intervention in their lives is a matter of trying to figure out who stole what was rightfully hers. As time passes, however, her focus changes to simply finishing the story the doctor she is in love with has asked her to tell: what happened that afternoon, when he found Ellen, Desirée's birth mother, collapsed on the floor, with all three girls standing in shock around the body?
I've previously read bits and pieces of this book, but it wasn't until I read it through properly now that I realized I never got around to sitting down and reading it from start to finish. I should have, as it is a very interesting read. ( )

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2008/04/aprilheks.html ( )

A good book. Especially the vivid descriptions of the “sisters”. And Axelsson does us a favour when she reminds us how awful we treated the “different” in a not too long ago past. May this never happen again!

I’m not sure I can accept the way the “hidden” sister gets in contact with her “sisters”. On the whole, I have difficulties in understanding why the author puts this supernatural dimension into her story.
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En bra bok. Framförallt de levande beskrivningarna av "systrarna". Och Axelsson gör oss en tjänst att påminna oss om hur ohygglit vi behandlade "avvikande" i ett inte avlägsen förflutet. Må detta aldrig ske igen!

Jag är inte helt övertygad om att jag köper sättet med vilket den "undangömda" systern kontaktar sina "medsystrar". Överhuvudtaget har jag svårt att förstå varför författaren lägger in denna övernaturliga dimension i sin historia. ( )

http://literaryfeline.blogspot.com/2007/04/april-witch-by-majgull-axelsson.html ( )