Cinnamon Breeze By Adrian Horn Is A Coming-of-Age Story Set In 1930s Sweden

On The Table Read Magazine, “the best arts and entertainment magazine UK“, follow 17-year-old Lisa Strang from pre-war London to 1930s Sweden as she navigates family secrets, vibrant jazz nightlife, and the rising tide of European fascism in Adrian Horn’s compelling historical novel, “Cinnamon Breeze.”

Written by cultural historian Adrian Horn, “Cinnamon Breeze” is a potent novel centering on 17-year-old Lisa Strang as she takes up the fight against fascism in the 1930s. The book serves as the second installment of a meticulously researched family saga.

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Plot and Setting

In 1935, 17-year-old Lisa leaves the security of her life in London after previously leaving school to work in her local library. She travels to live with her estranged father, Jan, in Sundsvall, Northern Sweden.

Before leaving, Lisa builds a friendship with her former teacher, the bohemian Rosina, who introduces her to pre-war London art and encourages her to write an article about modernist Swedish art and design. In Sweden, Lisa finds work in a sawmill and navigates complex family dynamics.

She discovers her father’s affair with the stylish, married Ester and deals with Ester’s drink-enraged husband. Readers of Horn’s previous novel, “Anaesthesia” (published by Ingram Sparke in 2019), will already know Jan and Lucy, the mother Lisa longs to know.

Characters and Relationships

Lisa encounters several new figures alongside returning characters from the previous book. Returning individuals include Jan’s humorous, worldly sister Gladys and the warm-hearted Eric.

New acquaintances include the wry Matya, the enigmatic and jazz-loving Lars, and Jan’s lover Ester. Older, more experienced friends in Stockholm introduce Lisa to the city’s heady, jazz-infused nightlife and take her into their confidences.

Lisa eventually falls for Lars, who later goes off to fight in the Spanish Civil War. When Lisa is offered a new job, tensions mount and she faces the most difficult decision a young woman can make.

Historical Context and Themes

As fascism rages across Europe, Lisa hears about appalling events happening in Germany and Austria. Her political conscience develops alongside her social awareness as she joins the fight against fascism.

Author Adrian Horn aims to challenge standard historical views shaped by BBC television dramas and Hollywood interpretations. Drawing on authors like Daphne du Maurier, Rosamond Lehmann, Emma Smith, and Rumer Godden, Horn writes in the first-person style of a 1930s young woman.

Adrian Horn

“Cinnamon Breeze” follows on from my previous novel – it is part of a family saga and those who have already read “Anaesthesia” will recognise Lisa’s father Jan, his sister Gladys and his friend Eric but there are a host of new characters waiting for you to meet them, and “Cinnamon Breeze” stands on its own for new readers.

–Adrian Horn

Adrian Horn is a novelist and cultural historian with two previous books. Those include “Anaesthesia” (2019) and “Jukebox Britain: Americanisation and youth culture 1945-1960” (Manchester University Press, 2009).

Research for “Cinnamon Breeze” involved exhaustive work, including three trips to Sweden. During these visits, the author built relationships with local experts to ensure authentic historical realism.

Find more from Adrian Horn now:

Kindle: https://amzn.to/4xhoyah

Paperback: https://amzn.to/4yskHrS

Apple Books: https://apple.co/4ycsbjn

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