Truth

Throughout the novel, the author uses Eira’s prolonged police investigations as a throughway to her thematic explorations regarding truth and relativity. At the start of the novel, Eira and her colleagues are convinced that Sven Hagström has been murdered by his son, Olof. For 23 years it has been common knowledge that Olof Hagström “committed a serious crime . . . He confessed to rape and murder” (15). Yet the longer that Eira is working on the case, the less certain this version of events appears. Each new clue she uncovers and each new individual she encounters challenges her understanding of the truth. During Eira’s conversation with Sven’s former odd-job suitor, Karin Backe, the author addresses these notions more explicitly. Karin recounts Sven talking about Galileo and the ways in which “everything we really know is ancient knowledge, that most of what has come since is...