Masja is the final novel in the powerful triptych about the family Tolstoy.
Author Carola Hansson glimpses her own way into the novel with a fictional portrayal of Masja’s life during the 1800s last decades, until her death in 1906. It is a broad and vivid portrayal, not only of the people and life on the family estate Yasnaya Polyana, but also gives a great insight of the social conditions at the time. Through authentic excerpts from letters and diaries, we enter a world where people – while they engage in social life, fine arts and spiritual development – desperately are trying to respond to the increasingly urgent political tensions in the turn of the century that was a reality in Russia.
The story of Masja is a destiny of a woman that touches issues that are highly topical today. The story is carried out in a language that is clear and transparent, the sentences are long and winding, rhythmic and varied; To read this novel is a powerful experience. Carola Hansson’s story of Masja is a rich and magnificent novel.
Masja was shortlisted for the August Prize in the literary class and also for the Swedish Radio Great Novel Prize.