Pappa Pellerin’s Daughter

The girl, Loella, who everyone calls ‘Loopy Loella’, is a strange child, basically bringing herself up in the woods, with two brothers to look after solely by herself. An old scarecrow is all she has to protect her, and ‘scarepeople’ away. She is wild and yet very capable, but when she is sent to a Home, she is bewildered with the town, not understanding how to live. It was all so different from the woods. She imagines a lot about her father, and creates many false illusions and dreams. In these dreams she heroically save her father from drowning, or burning to death, or from dying in a terrible car accident. When she finally gets back to the life in the woods that she knows, and meets…well, guess who? One can only guess at her feelings. Translated from the Swedish by Kersi French.