BOOKS

The Bird Within Me Flies Wherever it Wants

Original title: Fågeln i mig flyger vart den vill
Published: Mirando Bok, 2017

What do you do when it feels impossible to live up to everything that is expected of you? What do you do when the only person who understands you disappear? When you are young and carry a longing for something that you can hardly put words on?

Berta was born in 1910 on a farm in a small village in northern Sweden. During her childhood, she lost both her sister and her beloved mother in tuberculosis, the severe lung disease that affected so many people in the early 1900s.

She knew early on that she wanted to be an artist and took a stand against the many conventions that existed when it came to work, family and dreams.

The Bird Within Me Flies Wherever It Wants is based on the life of artist Berta Hansson but it is also a universal story of grief, longing, intransigence and the power of imagination to change.