For fans of characters like Ove (Fredrik Backman) and Olive (Elizabeth Strout), the elderly Bo, and his dog, Sixten, are your new obsession. WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH (Penguin Random House 2025) by debut author Lisa Ridzen (translated from Swedish by Alice Menzies) is an extraordinary, quiet, meditative, character-driven novel about aging, grief and loss. It’s also a joyful celebration of human connection and the special bond between a man and his dog.
Bo’s wife Fredrika is now in a nursing home in another city due to her dementia. Their son, Hans, visits his father who lives alone except for his cherished hound Sixten. Bo is aging and requires help, so a succession of carers arrive and leave his house at all hours to prepare him meals, shower him and make sure he’s ok. The most Bo can manage now is to take Sixten outside the door, but the days of long walks in the forest are over. Bo and his best friend for decades, Ture, are no longer able to catch up for coffee but they remain connected by regular phone calls.
As Bo’s health deteriorates, his son Hans threatens to take Sixten away, to give him to a family who can look after him properly and allow him to exercise more frequently. The idea of losing Sixten, Bo’s special companion, is devastating.
This novel is a meandering, quiet and complex representation of aging. The author manages this so deftly by incorporating the events of actual days with Bo’s memories and dreams, which often feature detailed remembrances from his past. The book is also punctuated with the short notes left in the daybook by one carer for the next, a quick summary of Bo’s mood, whether he’s eaten or showered, his fatigue or anxiety.
Bo’s relationship with his son hasn’t always been great, and he doesn’t want his life to end in acrimony, especially after the difficult experience he had with his own father. But Hans’ constant attempts to remove Sixten, while well-meaning, prevent Bo from feeling anything but anger and contempt towards him.
WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH is a profoundly moving, compassionate, empathic and emotional novel about the lives we lead, the people upon whom we depend, end of life choices, and the restrictions often placed around the elderly, not only physical restrictions but also limitations in how much say they have over their own circumstances.
While there is much to love and to laugh about in this story, it is ultimately a sad tale. It is probably the most skilled depiction I’ve read about the slow decline of someone’s health, their physical deterioration, their weakening spirit and their gradual regression in the mental and emotional thoughts they are able to process as they decline. From personal experience, I found this both difficult to read and yet ultimately such a beautifully narrated and portrayed portrait of a life coming to an end. In a similar way, another book I love, Sean Wilson’s gorgeous novel YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS, describes aging and memory loss through the eyes of the main character, and uses the structure of the novel as a device to represent confusion and a feeling of not being in control.
Bo will go down in literary history as one of those elderly characters – like Ove and Olive – who can be known by one name. I felt so much compassion towards him, and his bond with Sixten, and his flailing relationship with his family. WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH won many rightly deserved awards, including Swedish Book of the Year. This is a real tearjerker, both heartwarming and tender, finely characterised, deeply moving, profound and thoughtful.