History Literature / TheAnderssons

6: "Skärvor av kristall" ("Shards of crystal"), first published in 2007, takes place in 1938 and 1939. Louise Stjärnstedt is fifteen years old when her mother (Mandi) dies. And that is the start of a huge journey for her. She now starts to realize that her father has been abusive towards her mother, at the same time as she developes feelings for a Jewish boy...

* TheSixties: "Revolternas år" takes place in 1968. UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, hippies and a new psychodelic fashion all appear in this book. We also get references to the big building project in Sweden, where many old houses were demolished to big new "modern" ones.

** In ''Nya tider'', Rebecka meets (of course) a fourth elderly bearded man in front of a grave at a town cementary. He tells her that the grave belongs to his mean former school teacher, and his story helps Rebecka with not giving up her own dreams of becoming a teacher. But no matter how much she looks for it afterwards, she can never find the grave again. Which makes you wonder (yet again) who the old man was...

* RealWomenDontWearDresses: As this series developes a very strong pro-feminist message as the time goes by, it ends up in the territory of this trope. Almost all the Andersson women have a career of their own, even if they are married and live in a time when married women were supposed to be housewives. Mandi is the only one out of four sisters to give up her career plans when she gets married, and she is punished for her "stupid" choice by ending up being abused by her husband ("that's what happens if you become dependant on a man, girls"). And the GirlyGirl Åsa is treated as a more whiny and prissy person than her {{Tomboy}} sister Saga. But it seems to go the other way around too, as all the men have to give up their machismo (or not be macho men in the first place) if they want to be portrayed in a positive light. So you can say that the message is that all traditional gender roles, both for women and men, are bad...

* SiblingRivalry: Most of the siblings in this series will get along with each other, even if they are [[SiblingYinYang notably different]]. The one big exception is Cecilia and Hannes in "Spränga gränser". Cecilia feels that she almost must be ashamed of her good grades in school, because of her brother's dyxlexia. Hannes is very bitter about his sister's success, and he wrongly thinks that he's the TheUnfavorite with their parents. But actually, Cecilia feels a bit of jealousy towards Hannes too: He has gotten a job already and makes his own money, which she only can do during the summer breaks from school. Their mother has also decided that Cecilia ''has'' to get a High School diploma [[note]]this was in the 1950s, when it was still not certain that a working class kid in Sweden would be able to acchieve that[[/note]], while nobody will ever put any such pressure on Hannes. And also, Hannes is two years older than her ''and'' a boy, so he can go wherever he wants, while Cecilia is forbidden by their mother to even ''think'' of doing the things which he does. And to make the point even clearer, the two siblings are also divided in their different tastes in music: Cecilia likes up-tempo rock'n'roll and Hannes prefers moody jazz. Things become a bit better between the two though over the course of the book: Cecilia decides to help Hannes with writing down his poems and even having them published, and it seems like they have started to get a new understanding for each other's problems.

** Eric and Otto have a case of SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan. Eric is meaker and sensitive and becomes a confectioner. Otto is tougher and more austere and becomes a military officer.
** When it comes to Cecilia and Hannes, they develope a full-blown SiblingRivalry. Cecilia is pretty much pressured into getting a High School diploma, whether that is what she wants or not. Hannes has dyslexia and could hardly get even a passing grade in Elementary School, so he thinks that he is TheUnfavorite. But if you ask Cecilia, he is free at least to get a job and make money and simply go anywhere he wants. They are constantly jealous of each other and are even divided by their different tastes in music: Cecilia's upbeat rock'n'roll vs Hannes's moody jazz. It is only very gradually, that they can start to approach each other again.

* {{Adorkable}}: Samuel Berglund is shy and meak and had no friends before Rebecka arrived to the village. And he also gets lots of sympathy points for having dyslexia long before the condition was understood.

* PluckyGirl: While you can say that most of the girls in this series are plucky, Elin has to be the best example of the lot. She will become (in)famous for having run away from home to make money for her family, when she only was eleven years old.

* {{Arcadia}}: As much as this series applauds progress in most other areas, it is remarkably protective of the increasingly marginalized countryside. Elin is determined to live on the family homestead until she dies, and Elisabeth and Saga also live on the countryside. The commune "Fyra systrar" is located in the countryside too and gives several women (including members of the Andersson family, like Judith and Maria and Nina and Louise) a place to live in the 1970s. Of course, some members of the Andersson family have other interests and prefer to live in the nearby town of Växjö. Anna, Cecilia and Åsa even spend most of their lives abroad. But still, Saga writes a series of books about the family. And that reminds them of where their origins are.

** Rebecka grew up in the city of Stockholm, but has to live with her grandparents in rural Småland. Of course, she needs a while to adapt to her new surroundings. Ironically, her mother Elin had been a Country Mouse in Stockholm.

** Karin and Ragnhild lead the bullying against Rebecka in "Drömmar av glas". Both of them also come from prestigious local families (Karin's father is a merchant; Ragnhild's father is a priest), which makes it easy for them to taunt a less fortunate underdog.

* {{Arcadia}}: As much as this series applauds progress in most other areas, it is remarkably protective of the increasingly marginalized countryside. Elin is determined to live on the family homestead until she dies, and Elisabet and Saga are dedicated farmers. The commune "Fyra systrar" is located in the countryside too and gives several struggling women (including members of the Andersson family, like Judith and Maria and Nina and Louise) a place to live in the 1970s. Of course, some members of the Andersson family have other interests and prefer to live in the nearby town of Växjö. Anna, Cecilia and Åsa even spend most of their lives abroad. But still, Saga writes a series of books about the family. And that reminds them of where their origins are.

** Åsa and Saga are a TomboyAndGirlyGirl pair. Åsa is a BookDumb TheFashionista, who becomes a clothes designer. Saga is the BookWorm and OutdoorsyGal, who becomes a writer and a farmer.

* FieryRedhead: Rebecka is never ''quite'' as fiery as many other redheads in literature. But she can have her moments. In "Drömmar av glas", she attacks her bullies when she feels that enough is enough. And in "Nya Tider", she gives a suitor who assaulted her an angry ReasonYouSuckSpeech and immediately breaks up with him.

[[folder:Tropes A to H]]

* CoolOldLady: Elin becomes a huge inspiration for her grand-niece Saga. She's also there to help and support Nina, another grand-niece. And she's tough enough to still live at her homestead until she's 100 years old.

* ChangingOfTheGuard: When the series starts out, Elin is clearly the protagonist. But after two installments, that role is naturally given to her daughter Rebecka instead. And then, it is moved around between different girls in their family.

* NiceJewishBoy: Heinz Lewinsky is this. He's a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany and Louise's first boyfriend, who opens her eyes for how the Jews are treated (and remember, this was right before the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII started). It is later revealed that Louise got married to him. And like so many other Nice Jewish Boys, he became a doctor. Even after his premature death from a heart attack (he was only in his 40s), he is greatly missed both by Louise (who pretty much starts a new relationship with the wrong man only as a desperate attempt to deal with her grief) and by their daughter Nina (who joins a gang of juvenile delinquents in an attempt to escape ''her'' problems).

* AWorldHalfFull: This series has a good balance between realism and optimism. The message is basically "things might look hard now, but if you work hard and don't give up, your dreams will come true".

* DarkerAndEdgier: All of the installments touch some social injustices and other tougher issues. Nevertheless though, "Skärvor av kristall" arguably takes the cake with its portrayal of domestic abuse, suicide, antisemitism and an upcoming second world war.