The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley is a novel about discovering family secrets. Freya, granddaughter of a famous poet, is a young woman of Icelandic descent who was brought up in Connecticut. Her mother, a widow, keeps her apart from her grandmother and aunt until she is 7, when they visit the Icelandic community near Winnipeg called Gimli for the summer.
The adult Freya is scarred by three traumatic events when she was a child–one from that summer, when her mother is injured badly enough to affect the rest of her life, and another when she is 13. On that occasion, her fascinating Aunt Birdie, who is always talking about their Icelandic heritage and Norse mythology and getting her to memorize Icelandic sagas, takes her off to Iceland without her mother’s permission, and while Freya is alone with her, has a massive breakdown.
Finally, Birdie commits suicide on Freya’s 14th birthday. The timing makes Freya believe the suicide must be somehow her fault, so she blames herself for that and for her mother’s accident. Since then, she has lived a sort of subdued, underachieving life, keeping her distance from others.
This book is written in the form of letters to her cousin, for Freya sets off on a journey to Iceland after she overhears something that makes her think that Birdie had a child before she died. Her intention is to find her cousin.
An involving story, the book is full of details about Icelandic culture, history, and language, which add to its interest. Its slowly unfolding mystery keeps your attention.
What? Me Read? 