Winter Light

John Ajvide Lindqvist came like a ray of light. "Let the Right One In" (2004) put a new twist in the vampire myth. Anyone familiar with the genre - and Hammer Film Productions - would know how the story would go. An unsuspecting visitor in a small town, where the inhabitants cower in fear at the sight of a desolate castle in the nearby mountain. An unexplained curse decimating the populace. A hero who would save everyone, but he wasn't the knight in shining armor. In the case of Lindqvist, who was born on Blackberg, Sweden on December 2, 1968, his bloody tale involved young lads battling drunkards, school bullies, and the Nordic winter. He was once a magician, whose new spin (on the vampire tale) was like a new trick he conjured.

"I think I would find it difficult to credibly portray a person who works on some computer company and has a chilly connection to his wife. I have to write about people whose basic conditions in some way resemble my own, even though I am much happier. People who live in a kind of situation that makes them likely to embrace change, even if it comes from the dark side," he said.

Literary critics praised "Let the Right One In", which spawned a movie and a remake. Lindqvist had no complaints about both big-screen versions.

The odd couple

Oskar, a twelve-year-old who lived with his mother, was looking for a friend. He fancied no one in his school, being a victim of bullying. His father, who lived in the countryside, couldn't help him. (He's an alcoholic.) The long nights influenced his growing interest in morbid stuff. Stockholm had its share of crime, but it was Eli who showed up to Oskar one (cold) evening. He looked like a girl in boy's clothing, but it turned out that he was a castrated lad centuries ago. It didn't dawn on Oskar's mind what it meant, as he wanted a companion.

Readers would expect blood flowing in some pages, but it wasn't the killing that would shock them. It was a depiction of loneliness, of how it could be lethal in the long run. This was Eli's case, after he found out that he would be immortal. Was his meeting with Oskar bound to happen? He was fascinated with crime and forensics, his only respite from a world who had been rather hard on him. He could've wished for an end to his young life, even witnessed a gruesome killing of a human being. Stranger things have happened.

As for the title, it wouldn't be hard for fans of vampire literature to figure out what it meant. Some would even be sharp to foresee how the friendship between the two would turn out (hint: Reinfeld). It wasn't anti-climactic at all. After all, Oskar and Eli needed each other. It was two against the world. (Scary but true.)