When Water Approaches

What happens to a person who is torn apart by the roots? How long will the wounds remain? Cecilia knows that she is forced to leave her husband and children. In order to survive and move on. But will she be able to live with herself then? Then she is sought out by Rut, a woman who desperately needs her help. And who carries a story that will affect Cecilia to her core.

Three generations earlier, the young woman Elsa fights for her own future and for the future of the village of Valmåsen. The power company wants to force her and everyone else in Valmåsen to leave their homes. A dam is to be built, the village is to be drowned. But what happens when Elsa falls for the wrong man? Should she follow her heart or her duty?

When Water Approaches is a beautiful and affecting novel based on true events. About love, the bonds between people and what makes us who we are.

 

Part 1 in the Valmåsen Series

 

Reviews:

“In the books about Valmåsen, Karin Härjegård works in two time frames. A late 1950s where the twins Elsa and Rut and their parents one day receive the news that the newly renovated family farm will be submerged. The compensation is enough for a small ethernet house in the neighboring village of Tännäs. In parallel, we follow Cecilia in the present, who lives in Sundsvall and works as a coach and conversation therapist. The two stories live their own lives for a long time, but are skillfully tied ever closer to each other at the same time as they are each other's distortions: What do we use the time and electricity that flooded villages and lands gave us for?

In Valmåsen, the emphasis is on one's own creation, on self-sufficiency, on survival, on farms that have been built up by generations. In the present, Cecilia sorts the personalities of staff groups by color and improves group dynamics with poorly substantiated exercises. Surface above all.” -

Malin Palmqvist, Länstidningen, Östersund.

 

 

"Strong, emotional and thought-provoking. These are just some of the words that come to my mind when I read the touching and well-written novel When Water Approaches. This is a novel I want to put in everyone's hands! We need to understand our past and the sacrifices people make for new needs and behaviors.

Karin Härjegård has an extraordinary ability to tell and write books with warmth and empathy about people and events that touch and engage me deeply. I get angry, despair and tears flow when I share people's struggles and experiences."

- Agneta Norrgård, book reviewer and reading promoter

 

"A book that truly lives up to my high expectations! Karin Härjegård has a rare ability to arouse my commitment to the characters she creates."

- Pekka Heino, book reviewer