The reader easily identifies with her situation and engages deeply in this very well written life portrayal.

A mulled wine scented story that attracts much laughter.

Maria Ernestam has a special talent in weaving complicated intrigues that drill themselves deep into the reader’s psyche. And her writing is beautiful. In The Scarred Pianist she tells the story of a relationship that often triggers envy…

Maria Ernestam is a skilled author with a capacity for dramatazing and capturing her readers. This she proves again in her sixth novel, Daughters of the Marionettes, a story about an unsolved murder committed thirty years ago in a small town on the Swedish west coast. […] Maria Ernestam aspires for more and seeks to explore the reasons behind violence and what causes people to act the way they do. She writes about love and jealosy, about friendship and deceit…

Can one win an Oscar, a BAFTA or a Grammy for the most beautiful prose style? If so, Maria Ernestam clinches it. I’d fall on my knees in a pool of mud for her words, deliciously entwined throughout this tale set in Skåne. A journey uncovers a family’s destiny, taking a detour via China. Properly worked through and worth reading.

Maria Ernestam is one of Sweden’s most skilled wordsmiths.

Maria Ernestam employs a language that conveys the experiences and emotions of her characters in a subtle way. She creates fine historical snapshots from 1916 through the use of detailed inserts and a slightly archaic language and syntactic devices. Maria Ernestam also gently weaves pacifist and feminist ideas into her text, without in any way seeming forced.

The interesting thing is that Ernestam makes all this seem wholly feasible. It may be that we are now situated in that utilitarian world, which Torbjörn Tännsjö used to talk about, where it is not moral laws or norms but rather rationality and the sum of common happiness that determines whether something is good or bad.

A dark family drama about secrets and hatred, yet with a sense of love and hope, like a beautiful rose bush.

This is intelligent and amusing, adding a new and not entirely unpleasant perspective on reality. ‘Caipirinha with Death’ is fresh and in some curious way utterly logical.