Disillusioned by her job and city life, and suffering from a serious case of burnout, Emelie decides to ‘check out’ for a while. She packs her tent and sleeping bag, turns off her phone, and seeks refuge in a little clearing deep in the Swedish forest. Once there, Emelie stumbles upon an unusual group of people who have taken ‘escaping it all’ to a whole new level. Curious, she befriends one of them and is drawn into a bizarre, cult-like existence. Colony by Annika Norlin, a bestseller in Sweden, is both a charming and disturbing portrait of misfits; both funny and creepy, and really enjoyable.
The members of the Colony are a motley crew: some on the run from the law, some from their families, all of them at the margins of society one way or another.
We have the formidable Aagny who has served a prison sentence for killing her husband and has unofficially adopted the teenager Ersmo in somewhat fishy circumstances. Then there is the ‘melancholic’ Jozsef, the son of traumatised Hungarian Jews who have decided that silence is the best way to deal with their World War II experiences. His mother’s nighttime screams and father’s secret drinking are reminders that perhaps this is not the case.
There is the statuesque and harmless bouncer Zakaria, on the run from a criminal gang or the police, and possibly both. Sagne, who as a teen couldn’t stop thinking of dragonflies and ant colonies, while all her mother wanted her to do was to go parties and hang out with other youngsters. Her son Låke, who has arrived on earth for all the wrong reasons, through no fault of his own.
And finally, Sara, their charming and manipulative leader, whose stay in an Indian ashram (‘The ashram perhaps wasn’t the most serious India had to offer’) has taught her, the hard way, everything she needs to know about manipulation, sexual and otherwise.
Colony is a refreshingly original book, completely different from anything I’ve read before. Norlin has created a universe of totally convincing outsiders. For all their faults and, in some cases past crimes, we can’t help but empathise – and dare I say like – them all. It’s just that their way of living has an ugly tendency to tip into cult territory.
Emelie won’t be alone in toying with the idea of escaping it all. The success of Norlin’s book perhaps speaks to our deep down fantasies to do as Emelie and the Colony have done. Simply leave it all behind.
Colony by Annika Norlin is published by Scribe Uk , 416 pages.
