Till My Change Come: Nature, Justice, and Redemption in Åsa Larsson’s Until Thy Wrath Be Past

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Åsa Larsson’s Till dess din vrede upphör (2009) [Until Thy Wrath Be Past 2011] is the fourth of five Rebecka Martinsson mysteries. Larsson enhances the genre with an exceptionally vivid depiction of the Swedish Arctic. All the characters are affected by the forbidding landscape of forests, frozen lakes, and mountains. The harshness of nature in this region leads some to violence and death; others to self-understanding and redemption. The novel’s most striking feature is, however, a remarkably successful introduction of the supernatural into the story. The first narrator is the spirit of a murder victim, who hovers above the other characters, influencing their actions and thoughts. Freed from the constraints of time and place, she is able to travel back as far as World War II and witness the dark collaborationist underworld of a so-called neutral Sweden. With her skilful interweaving of mystery, nature, and the supernatural, Larsson has created a powerful and moving addition to Nordic crime fiction.