The novel ”Innan floden tar oss/Sisters by the River” was one of the best Swedish books published by Norstedts in 2012. It is a fascinating story by Helena Thorfinn on life in Bangladesh, both among poor people in the countryside and amomg foreign diplomats in the capital Dhaka. Thorfinn worked for many years as a journalist for newspapers as well as for TV before making a career change to work as a social analyst for Save the Children and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). After three years at the Swedish Embassy in Dhaka, she and her family returned to Sweden and settled in Lund. She is now working as Communications Manager for the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) at Lund University.
Innan floden tar oss is her debut novel, and still an unusually mature and well-written book, as sharp in its depiction of contemporary customs as in the analysis of a failure of development policies. It is a novel vibrant with colour and teeming with life. With immediacy and humour Thorfinn describes the Swedes’ attempts to do good while being politically correct, and she movingly narrates the dreams and misfortunes of the Bangla girls. A sweeping, powerful and exciting portrayal touching on the urgent, difficult issues as well as the everyday ones.
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