REQUIEM FOR A MOTHER

REKVIEM FÖR EN MOR – REQUIEM FOR A MOTHER

By Elisabeth Åsbrink

REQUIEM FOR A MOTHER is Elisabeth Åsbrink’s mourning diary. A book about grieving a mother and a relationship strained by conflict and tensions, but also of acknowledging moments of deep connection.

IN SHORT PASSAGES – sometimes only a single sentence – emotions of loss, relief, anger, and tenderness are woven together.

A REQUIEM IS a mass for the dead, derived from the Latin requies, meaning rest, repose. And it is this longing for something to come to rest as well as finding peace oneself, that characterises Elisabeth Åsbrink’s condensed prose.

“The spring is cautious. Knowing how much you would have enjoyed it makes me cry. You have become ashes in a green urn that will break down and dissolve, leaving a void in the clay soil, partly filled with dust.”