Holmström, Britt 1946–

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Holmström, Britt 1946–

PERSONAL:

Born June 10, 1946, in Malmö, Sweden; married (divorced); married Nicholas Ruddick (a professor), 1979; children: Christopher, Anna. Education: Sheridan College, Oakville, Ontario, Canada, Visual Arts Diploma, 1979; University of Regina, B.S., 1989, M.S., 1992. Religion: Atheist.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Also worked as a medical secretary.

AWARDS, HONORS:

City of Regina Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards, 1998, for The Man Next Door; Canada Council Grant, Canada Council for the Arts, 1998, for the financing of The Wrong Madonna.

WRITINGS:

Peppermint-Gin, A. Bonniers Förlag (Stockholm, Sweden), 1967.

The Man Next Door, Cormorant Books (Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

The Wrong Madonna, Cormorant Books (Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Britt Holmström's own life has helped to inspire her distinctive characters and writing style. At the age of eighteen, the author traveled from her native Sweden to London, where her immersion in the "Swinging London" culture of the 1960s led her to write her first novel,Peppermint-Gin. Published in Sweden when Holmström was in her early twenties, the novel afforded her the opportunity to move to Spain. From there, Holmström journeyed to Canada where she has set up a permanent home with her family and established herself as one of Canada's most unique writers.

More than thirty years after her first novel was published in her homeland of Sweden, Holmström's second work of fiction,The Man Next Door, caught the attention of the literary world. The author's first novel in English tells the story of a boy growing up in Sweden during the Second World War. The story focuses on the guilt and shame the young protagonist feels over the fact that his father is a Nazi sympathizer. A reviewer for the Globe and Mail called Holmström's novel an "evocative" work. A contributor to the Regina Free Press felt that the author's prose was "seamless," and a writer for the Literary Review of Canada commented that Holmström "elegantly shifts perspectives" in the third-person narrative.

In 2002, Holmström's second English-language novel was published. The Wrong Madonna follows the exploits of Swedish-born Lisa Grankvist across countries and through several decades. Beginning in 1960s London, where a young Lisa tries to escape what appears to have been a traumatic childhood, and concluding with the older Lisa returning to her homeland in the 1990s,The Wrong Madonna subtly comments on world events while it describes one woman's journey to find her place in the world.

In a review for Herizons magazine, reviewer Irene D'Souza commented on how Holmström "deftly weaves recurring motifs" into her second novel, particularly the theme of caring for gardens. D'Souza went on to call The Wrong Madonna an "initially demanding but ultimately powerful novel." In a piece for World Literature Today, James Gerein called the book "an eminently worthy read" with a "strikingly original plot." A contributor to the Globe and Mail called Holmström's writing "fluid, evocative and deeply perceptive," pointing out that The Wrong Madonna is "brilliantly loaded with spot-on emotional insights."

Holmström told CA: "I write because I am unable not to. If I was, I would do something else. Being a writer is time-consuming, unprofitable, and often demeaning. Yet, a day without writing …"

Holmström, who stated that she does not have a writing process, lists her influences as "good fiction, world affairs, politics, history, [and] the follies of mankind."

She further told CA: "What inspired me? I don't know. Some initial idea (seemingly) out of nowhere. You take the idea and follow it. It takes you places. It introduces you to fictional people. You become lost in their world. They're in charge, not you."