Rating: 
Summary: Not always easy to follow, but worth the effort.
Review: There's a lot going on in Hanna's Daughters, and there's a lot of ground covered, and there are a lot of characters (and the fact that some of them have identical names makes it even more confusing). Sometimes all this makes for slow going, but it's worth the effort. In short, it's a family saga, a history of the women in one Swedish family moving through the history of Europe over a span of nearly a century.
Multi-layered, full of secrets, harsh truths, resentment and bitterness over the decades, it's worth the trouble it takes to plough through it.
Rating:
Summary: A book about growing as a human beeing
Review: This book goes under your skin. No mother/daughter relationship is the same but there is always the tension and the tenderness, and Marianne Fredriksson describes it delicately and without mercy. Her characters, as always, come alive on the pages. They bring out emotions of old and yet still erupting. However this is not Ms Fredrikssons best book. I hope and pray that her amazing books about Eve, Kain, Norea, Noah and others will be translated as well as her latest Maria Magdalena, for all my english speaking friends to ENJOY! Ms Fredriksson has the capability of putting historical and biblical events in a fiction format, and give it a womans point of view, that makes you feel you knew the people and can understand how it really happened.
Rating: 
Summary: A touching story about a woman's life without being kitsch
Review: This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for quite a time - I never had time to read, but one nicht I grabbed it and could not stop reading. For a few days and nights I lived with Hanna, Anna, and Johanna - all three of them remarkable women in their times. It is very much a "women's book", I cannot picture men liking it that much, because they don't know (and they CAN'T) anything about the sometimes difficult relationships between mothers and daughters. This book even taught me a lesson: talk to each other as long as there is time, don't put it off. It's a wonderful book that makes you laugh and cry! withought being KITSCH.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful tale of family relationships
Review: This book is a little difficult to get into at first, because of the change in narrators between chapters, and the similarity in the character's names. But once you get going, you can't put it down.
The book details the lives of three generations of women; a mother, daughter, and granddaughter. As a reader you will easily relate to one or all of these women, even though they lived different lives in a different time and in a different country. You will find parallels to your own life and your own relationships. The book is a journey into family and into that "a-ha!" moment when you discover that your mother is not just your mother, but she is a woman who has had similar experiences as you, and who also may have had some terrible experiences that have shaped who she is - and ultimately how you are.
Family history researchers will also appreciate the book and its journey through time, and the concept that only good memories are often remembered and shared; but it is the not-so-good memories that make our lives interesting and true.
A great book club selection that spawns wonderful conversation.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book started off really well. The story of Hanna was riveting. As I read on to discover that the narrator was Johanna, the grandaughter, I became totally disenchanted. What person could recreate the story of their mother AND grandmother with such rich detail with only old photographs and newspaper clippings? Who can look into the heart of another and know how they feel, especially when that person has passed away or is lying in a nursing home mute and unresponsive? I highly doubt that even with all of the diaries in the world someone could tell such a story. I was very disappointed with this book and have to agree with one of the other reviewers here on another point...Hanna only had one daughter.
Rating:
Summary: Borderlands
Review: This is an awfully good book from Sweden. It concerns farming families of the borderlands of Norway and Sweden. In the present an old woman lies in a nursing home without memory and sense, but with dreams. She also has history, a daughter, granddaughter, husband, (deceased). Then there is a flashback to her youth and rape and young motherhood. A widower wanted to marry her. He wanted the child with him, too. John Broman was good to Hanna. He liked children. His mother was mad. Broman became a miller. The couple had three sons. Johanna, the daughter, was born much later. The half-brother, Ragnar, was sent to Norway to serve an apprenticeship. He became fascinated with automobiles. Ragnar came home and became attached to his little sister. Ragnar bought an automobile. John Broman, the miller, died. Hanna became a bakery worker. Hanna's grandchild, Anna, found her papers and made a scrap book. It seems that Johanna was very separate from Hanna. She spent most of her time in her girlhood with Ragnar and his wife, Lisa. The book proceeds as far as the death of Johanna. It is not overly schematic. Old-fashioned and modern, the story ranges freely.
Rating:
Summary: Borderlands
Review: This is an awfully good book from Sweden. It concerns farming families of the borderlands of Norway and Sweden. In the present an old woman lies in a nursing home without memory and sense, but with dreams. She also has history, a daughter, granddaughter, husband, (deceased). Then there is a flashback to her youth and rape and young motherhood. A widower wanted to marry her. He wanted the child with him, too. John Broman was good to Hanna. He liked children. His mother was mad. Broman became a miller. The couple had three sons. Johanna, the daughter, was born much later. The half-brother, Ragnar, was sent to Norway to serve an apprenticeship. He became fascinated with automobiles. Ragnar came home and became attached to his little sister. Ragnar bought an automobile. John Broman, the miller, died. Hanna became a bakery worker. Hanna's grandchild, Anna, found her papers and made a scrap book. It seems that Johanna was very separate from Hanna. She spent most of her time in her girlhood with Ragnar and his wife, Lisa. The book proceeds as far as the death of Johanna. It is not overly schematic. Old-fashioned and modern, the story ranges freely.
Rating:
Summary: A Book to Touch the Heart
Review: This was a wonderful book. Growing up with a grandmother who came from a similar background I developed a greater insight into her and my family after reading this book. The story is not just about Hanna and her daughters but about a culture, their behaviors, and their intrinsic values. As readers we bring our experiences to what we read. It is possible that this book is more deeply appreciated by an older generation. Meaning those that have been both mothers, and daughters, and possibly grandmothers. I rate this as one of the finest books I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A Book to Touch the Heart
Review: This was a wonderful book. Growing up with a grandmother who came from a similar background I developed a greater insight into her and my family after reading this book. The story is not just about Hanna and her daughters but about a culture, their behaviors, and their intrinsic values. As readers we bring our experiences to what we read. It is possible that this book is more deeply appreciated by an older generation. Meaning those that have been both mothers, and daughters, and possibly grandmothers. I rate this as one of the finest books I have ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: Too complicated and confusing...
Review: When I read the book cover and the fact that it is #1 International Bestseller, I couldn't wait to read Hanna's Daughters. I love to read and I gave this one my best shot, but somewhere around page 200 this book became a chore. It had such potential. I'm wondering if something got lost in the translation.
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