Deckled Edge Books

Review: The Cold Song by Linn Ullman

With The Cold Song, author Linn Ullman delivers an intriguing story filled with deeply complex characters struggling to manage their strained relationships. During the summer of 2008 the Dreyer-Brodal family are spending their summer at Mailund, the Brodal family home on the coast of Norway. Husband Jon Dreyer is struggling to finish the third novel of his blockbuster trilogy. Wife Siri Brodal is busy running the family restaurant. They hire Milla Browne as a nanny to help take care of the children over the summer. One July night Milla disappears and her body is found two years later stirring up a wealth of questions and reactions from everyone.

Do you think about Milla’s mother? About Amanda? I do all the time. I think about her father too, he was such a quiet man, just standing there, broken, besides his wife when she was shouting at us.I want us to write that letter.

What do you think about when you think about Milla? I keep thinking about Amanda, can’t get her out of my mind, all alone, night after night, wandering from room to room, screaming out her grief.