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When the Cranes Fly South

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When the Cranes Fly South

Written by: Lisa Ridzén, Alice Menzies - translator
Narrated by: Ifan Huw Dafydd
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

THE SUNDAY TIMES WORD-OF-MOUTH BESTSELLER. A profoundly moving and life-affirming novel about one man’s desire to preserve his autonomy, the multitude of stories contained within a life, and the big things for which we have no words.

Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
Waterstones Book of the Month
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Bo is determined to live his own life in his own way. But his son has other ideas...

Bo lives a quiet existence in his small rural village in the north of Sweden. He is elderly and his days are punctuated by visits from his care team and his son. Fortunately, he still has his rich memories, phone calls with his best friend Ture, and his beloved dog Sixten for company.

Only now his son is insisting the dog must be taken away. The very same son that Bo is wanting to mend his relationship with before his time is up. The threat of losing Sixten stirs up a whirlwind of emotions and makes Bo determined to resist and find his voice...

‘So heartbreaking and funny and beautiful and wise… an extraordinary book’ RICHARD OSMAN

'You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to buy twenty copies and give them to everyone you love’ FREDRIK BACKMAN

‘The most moving book I’ve ever read.’ JACQUELINE WILSON

© Lisa Ridzén 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Dark Humour Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction World Literature

Critic Reviews

So heartbreaking and funny and beautiful and wise… an extraordinary book
The most moving book I’ve ever read – heart-breaking but also heart-warming.
A novel anyone will take to heart. A simple yet effective meditation on mortality, love and care... Lisa Ridzén’s debut demonstrates how sometimes the simplest storytelling can be the most effective. Anyone anywhere who has worried for a crumbling parent, or worried about the crumble in themselves, or simply worried that their dog understood them better than their family, will identify with Ridzén’s novel.
A tender tale about ageing, our own and others, and the quiet brutality of love. About what being a man is, and what being a human is, about fathers and sons and fathers and dogs. It’s really a book for anyone who’s had to say goodbye. The kind of book you give to someone when you’re really trying to say “I’ve been thinking about you” but don’t know how.
This empathetic Swedish bestseller is a poignant, quietly devastating meditation on old age.
This profoundly moving novel is sure to melt you into tears faster than a Cornetto in the sunshine ... Poignant, beautifully written and guaranteed to spark introspection.
Through lucid, observant writing, Ridzén conveys the lack of autonomy allowed to elderly people in a heartfelt novel that gives voice to a sensitively realised old man.
Meditations on memory and fatherhood underpin this tender tale about a man defending his right to live independently.
It’s one of those “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to buy twenty copies and give them to everyone you love” books.
There are not many novels that I want to tell you that you should read, but this is one of them. It is a novel about family, how our history shapes our present, and the many different forms that love can take. This is a beautiful and gentle novel about an honest and relatable man who simply wants to live quietly with his dog, and I won’t ever forget it.
All stars
Most relevant
I cried and cried and cried. It couldn’t have been more cathartic. Thanks to the author and the voiceover artist. Fabulous job! This will stay in my heart and mind for a long time now!

Heartbreaking

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The book triggered a lot of emotions, and nostalgia was the most prominent one for me. It is a good genre to dwell on. I carry memories of being close to loved one’s in their last few minutes. This book, somehow, did not remind me of that!

Rather strangely, it reminded me of the one’s I failed to be with! The moments I wish were chanced to me, despite knowing I would not have fared very well.

There was a mature way in which an old man’s life is approached by the author. Really beautiful snippets where he keeps drawing parallels to his current and past relationships. But I love the way he has monologues with the most prominent person in his life, who unfortunately cannot respond back.

There are however, cultural dissimilarities and a lack of chaos, which I have always associated with death. These were some reasons I could not find myself to be completely lost in the storyline.

I also consider this story to be (mostly) mono-dramatised sequence of events as seen from the eye’s of a dying old man - a rather painstaking put together perspective that leads to a predictable climax. Maybe this is the norm in first world societies. But there is so much more to the life of a man and, had the author taken a stab at painting the picture there may have been more hues than just blues.

I did listen to audible version and it took me a while to get myself adjusted to the thick accent. But the main narrator’s diction gains over time and I found it got more emotive after the hour mark. Readers who wish to seek for a simple story with no unexpected twists or turns may find themselves in good company with this book.

Carries a verisimilitude of reality

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