I think I'd give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. I'd like to give it at least 4 because the idea of a 3-generation saga about strong women reminds me of my own history (growing up with my mother, grandmother and great-aunt). But, it never quite pulls me in the way I wish it would. The story of Hanna -- the first generation -- is the most memorable and deeply developed, I think. I never felt that I got to know Johanna very well at all; she was overshadowed by her larger-than-life eldest brother, Ragner, and her melodramatic daughter, Anna whose observations serve as bookends at the beginning and ending of the novel. Johanna is also the saddest of the three, I think. I yearned for a stronger bond among the women, more similar to my experience.

What a perfect book to read around Mother's Day, as it truly made me reflect on the roles we moms play in our children's lives... and the myriad of long-term effects we can have on the choices they make. This book may take place in a different time and place than my life, but I could make connections nonetheless. Even when I couldn't directly relate to the characters' experiences, I was still drawn to them and enjoyed attempting to figure them out. Sidenote-- one day I asked my son to get this book for me from a different room and I told him the title. My own little Hannah came over and grabbed the book from me saying, "I want my daughters." :)

I'm still reeling from the depth of this book. Hanna's Daughters is a story of three generations of Swedish women, trying their hardest to find out who they are in a world that never seems to fit them completely. Hanna, Johanna and Anna - grandmother, mother and daughter, their lives winding through Swedish history: war and famine, prosperity and vague pleasures, from a mountain cabin on a lake in the mid 1800s to the streets of modern Göteborg.

The narrative is both personal and real, each women's experiences woven through everyone else's and we see each generation from the other's point of view. I loved this book for its history and the appreciation I've found for Sweden and its past, the class struggles and the people's desire to truly be a land of human rights. I loved the book for its words - an excellent translation that even gives you a sense of the rural dialect of the grandmother's family. I loved the book for the reality of these women whose relationships are so familiar - heartbreaking and poignant. I didn't love that most of the men seemed either weak or dominating, but I also feel like I understand the characters enough to know why there were together - and that the men did have much to offer these strong and struggling women.

At times the chronology and unfamiliar names and geography got confusing, but I eventually felt I belong in this land of water and life. I wished, sometimes, that their stories had been happier ones, but I think part of my love of this book is that they hard to find a way to work it out, despite their choices and circumstances. And because their was so much difficulty, their epiphanies and those moments when things finally seemed clear became that much sweeter.

book group August 2012, my choice

Read in one sitting, beautiful!

I really enjoyed this book, but for some reason it felt like it took forever to get through.

I found Hanna's and Johanna's chapters much more enjoyable than Anna's.

Cupertino book group; no doubt Ulrike's choice.

Excellent! Amazing wisdom & ideas. I had just given a lot of thought to the ideas behind this - so it was super cool to see it validated in words.

This book has totally inspired me to not only get to know the women in my genealogy more especially mother to mother but to really understand.

This was a reread. Liked it better second time around.