Fredrik Sjoberg's Swedish bestseller about summer, islands and finding happiness
in the little things. Every summer there are a number of nights, not many, but
a number, when everything is perfect. The light, the warmth, the smells, the mis
t, the birdsong - the moths.
Who can sleep? Who wants to? Most people do, it
seems. As for me, I'm on the verge of tears from happiness, and I wander around
on the island till dawn and dream and think that summer nights are our most unde
r utilized natural resource. A mesmerizing web of associations, The Fly Trap beg
ins with Fredrik Sjoberg's own experiences collecting hoverflies on a remote isl
and in Sweden.
His curiosity about the inventor of his fly trap leads him to
rediscover the extraordinary life of a near-forgotten Naturalist, Rene Malaise.
The tale that Sjoberg unravels - of heroic expeditions to Burma and the wilderne
ss of Kamchatka, of lost loves and unexpected treasures - leads him to reflect o
n life itself, on the natural world and how we learn to interpret it, on slownes
s, freedom and the bliss of limitation.
