ABOUT THE BOOK: ​ENSAMMA STUNDER
(“Lonely Moments”)
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Maria Bouroncle’s forthcoming novel tells the story of her great-aunt Ingeborg, a plain woman who had just six years of elementary schooling. At the age of 28 she drowned her three children. Readers can follow Ingeborg’s story from her marriage to Artur, via the murder in March of 1929, to the women’s prison in Växjö and the mental hospital in Vänersborg.
The love letters that Ingeborg wrote to Artur from her prison cell frame the narrative.
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Two half-withered geraniums stand in the window. Bright red petals drop intermittently to the windowsill. Dry out and shrivel up, turning a darker, blood-red shade. It has been eight months since the nurserymaid left the family. Ingeborg, who is still not dressed, is sitting at the kitchen table with her head in her hands. Gazing out at the steadily melting snow. Water trickles down the branches and drips to the ground, perforating the crust on the snow.