Ida Andersson, Company Owner
Representing Animus Friskvård / Ave Vita
Ida would like to market the Katja serie of book to the Chinese market, she is open for discussion with the delegation.
First book Katja - The unwanted daughter by Ida Andersson
The story of Katja - The Unwanted Daughter.
We get to follow Katja about how she had lived with her parents Alberto and Lilijana in Slovenia. Alberto wanted a son but got a daughter instead. He sat at the pub all days long and came home only to make trouble and beat up Katja and Lilijana.
Life was poor and very hard in Slovenia. We get to follow a bit of the country's history through World War II and then how the border was moved and the people belonged to communist Yugoslavia instead of Italy.
They flee to Italy and after a while they finally come to Sweden, which then needed labour.
The book makes me so curious about Slovenia. Also feeling sad about how Katja has been treated. This story is taken directly from life. It feels extra close to Katja, who is so unwanted and bullied.
This is the first book of three in this Katja series. I am eagerly awaiting the next book.
Really think you should get to know this debut author and Katja.
This book scores 5 on my 6-point scale
Katja 2 – Hell in Paradise by Ida Andersson.
Katja and her family have come from Slovenia and are needed here in Sweden as labour.
Katja starts school and doesn't get off to a good start. Her father wants to show that he is the one who decides in his family and he brings up the children.
They move around a lot before they come to Landskrona in Skåne.
Katja is not getting off any better there, neither at home nor at school. A teacher makes sure that life in paradise does not exist for Katja. In addition to the teacher, there are also other bullies both in the class and on the way to and from school. Children are mean.
At home there are some short quiet moments but they often end up in abuse.
What helped Katja coping was the music. Then she disappeared into her own bubble. Swedish and Slovenian records were the only ones she was allowed to listen to. Everything English and modern pop was like a red flag to her father.
Both her parents work a lot so they can afford to travel, which is the best Katja knows.
The descriptions of how they travel makes one want to travel the same way, but perhaps rule out some unsecure routes.
The book touches me very much. No human should have to be as exposed and teased as Katja was.
This also applies to today's schools and in our modern society. Imagine if adults could explain more to their children, kids understand. Ida Andersson describes so well what it looked like in Landskrona that I, who have been there a lot, hardly recognize myself. This summer I will travel around Landskrona and see what it looks like today.
Really want you to read these books because we all need to learn to treat each other and our new arrivals much better.
From the third and last book, I am very curious about how it will work out for Katja when entering adolescence and deal with the revolt against her parents.
This second book scores 5 on my 6-point scale
Katja 3 - Free, Strong and dangerous part 1 by Ida Andersson
Katja starts eighth grade and a lot has happened at home. Her mother Lilijana has filed for divorce from Alberto. Katja and her brother Alexander live with their mother. Katja finds different paths and friends in her search for her place and identity in life. Sometimes it goes wrong, but then she ends up in a nice MC gang where she can be who she really is. She is otherwise a troubled soul who doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. She is also a teenager who has to take on a lot of responsibility.
They have now become Swedish citizens so they are allowed to visit their origin country again and we get to follow Katja as they travel back to Slovenia to visit their relatives.
The quarrels with her mother and how Katja slowly takes over her own life with studies, illnesses and displeasures. She accompanies her girlfriends to various dance venues around Landskrona and Skåne.
This book reflects what it could be like to be a teenager in the 70s and have many things in your luggage. How it was to immigrate to Sweden in the 60s. How they were integrated back then. What we experience today also existed at that time.
The descriptions take my breath away and moves myself back to that time. The feeling of being able to earn your own money, being free and being able to buy things you have wanted so much. How love makes the body sprout.
It is an adventure to be with Katja on her way to becoming an adult. It doesn't matter that Ida Andersson writes about Landskrona and Skåne because when we all free ourselves and become adults this can take place just about anywhere in the world.
You must not miss these books about Katja. It's a page-turner and I don't know if I can really wait until this autumn to read the last part of Katja. Just want to say READ THE BOOKS!
This book gets the highest rating from me. It scores 6 on my 6-point scale
Katja 4 – Free, Strong and dangerous part 2 by Ida Andersson
Katja moves away from home and moves in with Kicken. She struggles with different jobs in different places. The Öresunds Shipyard was a large working place in Landskrona before it closed down.
The xenophobia was huge and very troublesome for Katja's parents. Katja also suffered from it.
Katja is very diligent and very inventive in her home. Her friends in the MC club start moving in together and having children. Building their own families.
There is a lot of destructiveness between Katja and Kicken. The contact between Katja and her mother, however, gets better after that she had moved away from home. Katja also has contact with her father Alberto, who has moved on in his life with another woman.
Reading this book makes me so nostalgic. A hard but very content-rich life that we get to follow along with Katja. Then this gut feeling that Katja follows. It amazes me how much Katja manages to do in her spare time. The moments which we all search for, someone who loves you and to love someone back. We also get to go on a trip to Europe. I hold my breath when I read about that adventure.
Feeling sad that this is the last book about Katja. My opinion is that Ida Andersson ties up and closes the story of Katja very well. I think that as many of you as possible should familiarize yourself with Katja and her life.
Also this second part gets the highest rating from me,
it scores 6 on my 6-point scale
Review submitted by Eva Bommelin, www.bommelin.se