The best-selling author of The Legend of the Ice People series is having the works translated into English now. From a Guardian interview linked from The Literary Saloon:

Her name automatically raises a lot of literary snobbery in Scandinavia – my Swedish friend, Helena, says that some libraries refused to stock Sandemo’s books (according to Sandemo, this was because they were worried people would steal them). The critics are not kind, but Sandemo says she doesn’t care. “Those people who think they know what taste people should have, they are difficult. ‘This is not a good book,’ they say. I don’t care if there are people who say it is not good literature, because I just think of my many readers who are more important.”

The interview describes some horrible events from Sandemo’s life, including her claim to having killed a man who atttempted to rape her at age 11 or 12. Perhaps her early trauma led her into the occult spirituality she appears to have now. Not that people have to have trauma like this to take up with demons, but it seems to be fertile ground for doing so.

Pardon me a moment for getting personal, but this interview reminds me of a story I read this morning. A woman said she had been sexually abused by her father and his team of Satanists in southern California several years ago. The details she gave are horrifying, but perhaps more horrifying than the details is the idea that such abusive men could be forgiven–that their sins could be passed over by the perfect judge and creator of the universe. And that’s what she said occured. Her father repented and asked her forgiveness as he lay dying in a hospital. How could the Lord forgive such men? Because everyone one of us is just a guilty as they are.

John Piper has a great message on Psalm 51, which deals with this idea near the beginning. The gospel, the love of God, is both shocking and fantastic.