She completed her fifth novel, A Sister in My House, in April 2016. Her subsequent novels: Sonata for Miriam (2009), The Kindness of Your Nature (2011), and The Blackbird Sings at Dusk (2016) have also been international successes. In Sweden, it became a winning best seller. In 2005 she completed her first novel Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs (later reprinted as Astrid and Veronika in 2007) which was published in 25 countries. She is a graduate of the Master of Creative Writing programme at the University of Auckland, studying with Witi Ihimaera. After arriving in New Zealand, she won a short story competition run by the Sunday Star Times in 2003. Olsson had first followed a course in creative writing in London which encouraged her to write short stories.

She continued her studies at the University of Wellington, graduating in English and German literature. But she travelled on to Singapore, Britain and Japan, finally settling in New Zealand with her family in 1990. In 1986, they left Sweden for Kenya where Olsson initially intended to take up a post in Kenya. After graduating in law from the University of Stockholm, she worked in banking and finance, married and gave birth to three sons. Biography īorn in Stockholm in 1948, Olsson was raised there by working-class parents. Published in 2005, her first novel Let me sing you gentle songs, an international best seller, has been translated into 15 languages. Linda Olsson (born 1948) is a Swedish-born novelist who lives in Auckland, New Zealand. A dreamlike evocation of the power of friendship.Linda Olsson at the Gothenburg Book Fair, 2008 This a subtle but powerful novel, tender and poignant.'- The Dominion Post, New Zealand gradually revealing their grief and loss. 'Not only impossible to put down, but impossible to forget.'- Canvas, New Zealand Their connection, initially as tentative and fragile as the first filaments of ice, gradually strengthens, allowing each woman to give voice to her stories, and in doing so to reclaim 'a heart for beauty.' Subtle, penetrating, and beautifully written, Astrid and Veronika affirms the power of narrative to transform.'-Kim Edwards, New York Times bestselling author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter 'Linda Olsson evokes, with great beauty and precision, the landscape of a friendship between two very different women, each caught in a tragic moment from the past. a chilly Scandinavian setting leavened by rich observations of nature, and characters whose prim, polite facades eventually disappear, exposing years of anger and hurt.'- Kirkus Reviews 'Has the hallmarks of an Ingmar Bergman film. 'Readers of Anne Tyler and Jodi Picoult will appreciate the lyrical prose and expert rendering of the themes of heartbreakk and loss.'- Booklist simply so beguiling.'- The New York Times

Astrid and veronika by linda olsson