Exploring a scientist-cum-journalist’s search for lineage across millenniums

The bookshop Stromstads Bokhandel is very near to my place in Stromstad. I am here to take part in an international writers' residency programme. The bookstore is very spacious, well-furnished, architecturally sound and has a variety of collections where fiction, crime fiction, non-fiction, biographies, romance, fairytale, health, fantasy, graphic novel, historical fiction, political thriller and more could be found for relishing the voracious readers' souls. Stromstads Bokhandel is run by Lise-Lotte Birgersson. The sophisticated lady has a vast experience to run a store. The readers mainly come from Stromstad and its surrounding areas, but mainly visit from Oslo where books are considerably more expensive than in Sweden. The bookstore has a turnover of four million a year.Lise-Lotte Birgersson says, "We are mostly selling the books of Swedish writers. Most of the Swedish like to read in their language.

Yet, for the last couple of years, among the young generation, English has been on the rise in Sweden. The place is a mainly a tourist hub and the summer turns Stromstad into a lively city.

Oslo is very near to the place. During the summer, many young Norwegians visit my book shop and want books written in English.  Though Swedish and Norwegians are especially level-headed Europeans we have tried hard to protect our citizens from the unwanted influence of English on language and culture."

Among the books, I have collected the book "My European Family by Karin Bojs" and have tried to review it.

My European Family--- the story revolves around Europe and its people articulated through its genetic legacies intertwined together using the newest archaeological findings. Intense to scrutinise her roots, Swedish science journalist Karin Bojs (the writer of the book) has assembled many information about the early history of Europe, chronological development of human socio-economic history, the physiology  of European people, the keen difference between one region and another, one civilization and others. In the book, the writer follows the migration of the U5 clan and their journey to present-day Sweden. 

Karin Bojs rose up in a small and scattered family. The writer never met her maternal grandmother or great-grandmother. She rarely met any relatives at all. These may be why the writer has spent so much time wondering who these relatives were and where they came from. She has wanted to know more since she was a 10-year-old.

Unusually, the author was able to trace the trail of her descendants through recorded history and into prehistory. Through the course of her research, she met dozens of scientists working in genetic research. The narrative travels the length and breadth of Europe, from the Neanderthals of central Germany to the Cro-Magnon in France. Karin visited the ancient caves, realising that her direct ancestors must have been living in the area when the cave art was painted.

Karin have followed developments in DNA technology as a science journalist over the last 18 years, for most of which she has been science editor at Dagens Nyheter, one of Sweden's leading daily newspapers. She has witnessed a revolution in the technology used in criminology and medical and biological research, and she has seen how DNA technology is now beginning to contribute to archaeology and history as well.  This book is an attempt to gather together these different threads: professional researchers' latest findings about the early history of Europe, and her own particular family history.