Per Anders Fogelstrom's Stockholm Series is a quintet of novels about the intertwined stories of a city and of a family. The research behind and within Fogelstrom's series is prodigiously detailed: he gives us meticulous descriptions of landscapes, weather, rooms, streets, factories, cafes, bars, and emerging landmarks; he knows and understands the historical events, issues, politics of the period, which of them were remote from the working classes, and which were immediate. He tells his stories without contrivance; when there are life-changing events, they erupt into a context of daily life...