Told through the journals of this schoolteacher turned apiarist, The Death of a Beekeeper, is his gentle, courageous, and sometimes comic meditation on living with pain. Westin has refused to surrender the time left him to the impersonation of a hospital, preferring to take his fate upon himself, to continue solitary, reflective life in the Swedish countryside. "I took little walks and noticed that in the last months the pain had actually colored the landscape in a peculiar way. Here and there is a tree where it really hurt, here and there is a fence against whose post I struck my hand in passing." His inner landscape is also re-forming: "This constant concern with an indefinite dangerous secret in one’s own body, this feeling that some dramatic change is taking place, without one’s being able to have any clarity about what really is... reminds me of prepuberty. I even recognize this gentle feeling of shame again." The relentlessly intimate burning in his gut provides a point of psychic detachment, rendering his survival "a unique art form whose level of difficulty is so high that no one exists who can practice it.” Yet he insists, "We begin again. We never give up."

    

    It is a charming account of Swedish customs that goes beyond their democratic monarchy, their progressive social-welfare programs, their avant-garde movies, and their excellence of design.For Swedish-Americans this book will have special meaning: the joy of reminiscing about those traditions (some possibly forgotten) that enriched and helped shape their lives. For their children it is a journey to a world they may not know of first hand. And for the tourist it affords a unique behind-the-scenes look not to be found in travel books, and is certain to enhance the pleasure of their visit.