Lena Einhorn can really tell a story so that you are captivated… And then there are surprises in the biography, surprises which wait until the end. But perhaps it is the description of the incomprehensible and appalling vulnerability over the decades that the Polish Jews have lived through that really remains after reading the book. It is a gripping and incredibly well-written history lesson and biography that Lena Einhorn has written.
Gunnar Bolin, Kulturnytt, Swedish Public Radio
At times, I read A Crate of Oranges as a thriller, where clues and details are skillfully planted only to be explained later on. The title’s crate of oranges is one of many examples. At other moments during the reading I have to wipe tears from my eyes. ”A Crate of Oranges” is a true life story, but it is also a Novel with a capital N, and with the ability to do all that with the reader that only literature can… It has been a long time since I read a parent-child account that is so intimately and earnestly described, with all the ambivalence it contains… I close the book with the somewhat dual feeling of having shared a great destiny but also of having been seduced by a furiously good novel.
Annina Rabe, Expressen
How to write another author’s life story? Einhorn says in the afterword that Jakubowski initially rejected her desire to do it, but that later, when he was struck by the disease that after years of struggle took his life in 2020, he himself reached out and wondered if she was still interested. So it is also a novel written with a large portion of love for its main character. Here, a writer speaks who has been deeply moved by the destiny she depicts.
Gabriel Itkes-Sznap, Dagens Nyheter
Einhorn has been the custodian of Jakubowski’s story with an unfailing tenderness and an impressive capacity for empathy, that both fills in and opens up the story’s many chasms. This constant uncertainty means that you read the book both as a striking portrayal and as a skillfully written tale from the time when people allowed themselves the luxury of taking a long time to tell their life story.
Sinziana Ravini, Göteborgs-Posten
After reading it, mainly the image of the father remains in me. It is the portrait of a man who does not allow himself to be portrayed, he is constantly slipping away, driven by fear, denial and a desperate hunger for life, on the run throughout his life, until the flight stops, in the slums of Bergsjön outside Gothenburg.
Carl-Michael Edenborg, Aftonbladet
I recommend you to read A Crate of Oranges, perhaps especially those of you who were not familiar with Jackie Jakubowski, because for you it will be a captivating novel, while those of us who knew him are reminded of his absence.
Nina Solomin, Fokus
Einhorn manages Jakubowski’s story well and has a knack for laying out pieces of the puzzle that compel the reader to continue. The book is written with a rhythm, while at the same time it leaves gaps that the reader seeks to fill.
Jonas Frånander, BTJ (Library services)
Lena Einhorn writes in fluent prose and approaches her subject with care. It is a book about a boy’s childhood and the young man Jasio is about to become as he has to leave for Sweden.
Anne-Charlotte Östman, LitteraturMagazinet
When personal traumatic experiences go hand in hand with structural systemic failures, the accumulated fear needs to be decoded and made visible in some form, perhaps clothed in words. Delicately, without a word too many and in exactly the right dramaturgical order, Einhorn lets the reader participate in just such a decoding. In a cinematic way, we step in and out of scenes, both terrifying and loving, constantly in a masterful balance between real and unreal, reasonable and unreasonable.
Sussi Yildiz Dag, Östgöta Correspondenten
It’s a fantastic novel, and I get really moved from time to time. Tears come out every now and then, but I also get a little laugh sometimes. Just like it should be when you read a really good book.
Peter Roth, Social Politik
