Review: "How I Spend My Days and My Nights" by Håkan Nesser

“How I Spend My Days and My Nights” by Håkan Nesser Novellix, 2019   Swedish crime writer, Håkan Nesser’s “How I Spend My Days and My Nights”—originally published in the Swedish magazine Allas in 2006—is a splendid, if blisteringly dark, psychological chiller that haunts the reader long after the last page. On a rainy November evening, Marteen, a successful novelist, stops on his way home at Harry’s Bar for a quiet drink. His wife, Marlene, is away on business and a quick drink is excuse enough to escape the rain and postpone his arrival to their empty apartment.       Harry’s Bar is empty except for the bartender and a man drinking alone at the bar. After Marteen orders a double scotch, a pitcher of water, and a towel (to dry himself from the rain), and before he can find a table, the lone drinker introduces himself as David Perowne. And while Marteen has never heard of Perowne, the stranger tells him a nasty and unbelievable story about Marlene. But it’s a story that could change everything in Marteen’s life.       “How I Spend My Days and My Nights” is astonishingly good. With a deceptively simple narrative, Nesser seamlessly builds the mystery around the question, is Perowne’s tale about Marlene true? And just as relevant, does it matter if it is true? The Hitchcockian premise is jazzed by a hint of wobbling character reliability, tension, and potential betrayal. Then there are those last few sentences that change everything with an ironic and gut-wrenching twist.

I read “How I Spend My Days and My Nights” in a cool standalone paperback edition from Swedish publisher, Novellix. It was part of a four-book boxed-set called Swedish Crime, which includes stories by Arne Dahl, Karin Tidbeck, and Henning Mankell.       “How I Spend My Days and My Nights” was obviously translated from its original Swedish, but no translator is noted in the Novellix edition.