Book Note: Harbor

Harbor by John Ajvide Lindqvist (2011, translated by Marlaine Delargy, pub. Thomas Dunne Books)

The Swedes have a long and troubled relationship with the sea. They depend on the sea, and the sea is cold, and black, and unforgiving.

The Ales Stenar, an ancient formation of rocks arranged in the shape of a giant ship, is believed to be a shrine dedicated to the people lost at sea. It is thousands of years old.

In JAL's latest novel, Harbor, in the cemetery of Domoro, an island archipelago, there is a huge anchor with a plaque that reads "IN MEMORY OF THOSE LOST AT SEA." Its chain is buried in the ground. Where does it go, Anders the protagonist of the novel wonders:
"...burrowing down into the slime on the seabed, down into the mud and the blue clay, down to the point where nothing can live, where there is complete silence..."

Andres has lost a lot to the sea: his small daughter vanished without a trace on the ice during a picnic trip to the old lighthouse, and in the aftermath his marriage dissolved. A couple of years and he returns to Domoro a drunk, trying to find something to cling to, something to drag him out of the hollowed state he is in. As the story unfolds, Anders learns that more people had vanished at the same spot, and that the sea is not a simple body of water but rather a lovecraftian incomprehensible and evil being.

JAL seems to be on a dare with the Horror genre. His first novel was about vampires, the next zombies, the two most known and popular Horror topics. Harbor, his third book, goes for the Eldritch Horror, complete with ancient rituals, human sacrifices and indescribable forces. Also, there is a conjurer bound to a water elemental, who provides the deus ex machina device which solves the plot. But let's not reduce this story to its fantastical elements. There is a wealth of characters here which are used to draw us in, and make us participate, reminding me of Stephen King. Actually I'd recommend the book to any King fan, they won't be disappointed.

The writing is clear and pleasant, again bringing to mind the easiness with which Kings' novels are read. I liked how skillfully JAL uses objects to highlight a particular situation or effect - the dead fern in Anders apartment for example, which provides the pivot for his escape from depression. But it's when he writes about the menace of the sea that he gives us the most convincing, chilling passages.