His stomach contracted as if he were about to faint, vertigo from gazing down into the depths of time. Their island, the ground on which their houses sat, even the ancient wooden boathouses down in the harbour were just pieces of Lego on the primeval mountain. Contemplating the relative age of the place, Anders, the story’s ostensible protagonist, becomes dizzy: For ages before humans built their fragile structures and took up permanent or seasonal residency on Domarö, the island had been underwater. The boy remembers his father explaining that the human settlement of the island, which to the children seems natural and permanent, is actually brand new.

In one of the opening scenes, two characters-a boy and girl, recent sweethearts-discuss the geological oddities of the island formation. Throughout Harbor, we are reminded over and over again of the relative newness of the Swedish archipelago where the story is set. Lovecraft’s tales of mind-bendingly old and hulking antagonists-at once legion and amorphous-threatening to devour from below. Lindqvist’s newest effort reads like an elegant spin on H.P. In his third novel, Harbor, Lindqvist’s subject is neither vampires nor zombies (as in his second work, Handling the Undead) but something arguably both banal and extraordinary: the ocean. Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist has made more than a slight impression on horror fans, beginning with his fresh look at the modern vampire narrative in his (2004) novel Let the Right One In.

John ajvide lindqvist new book