Life in Every Breath

Ester Blenda: Reporter, Adventurer, Pioneer

By: Fatima Bremmer, Gloria Nneoma Onwuneme - translator

Narrated by: Laura Jennings

Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

An award-winning biography of one of the first undercover journalists—a pioneering Swedish woman who lived a fascinating life of adventure and forbidden love and who changed journalism forever.

Born in 1891 in Stockholm, Ester Blenda Nordström defied stereotypes from an early age. She wore trousers, smoked a pipe, and rode motorbikes, much to the chagrin of her esteemed family. As a young woman, she captivated the public as Sweden’s first investigative journalist.

Ester’s real passion was uncovering the truth, which she did by inhabiting the lives of others. Under an assumed identity, she toiled as a Swedish milkmaid on a farm, lived for six months with the Indigenous Scandinavian Sami people, and journeyed to America alongside poor emigrants aspiring to a better life. She saved villages from starvation during the Finnish Civil War and joined an expedition to study volcanoes in Siberia. Her groundbreaking reports were received by a spellbound audience and would change journalism forever.

But just as Ester’s star was rising, her forbidden love affair with a woman ended in heartbreak, nearly destroying her. Her spectacular adventures and untamed heart concealed an inner turmoil that threatened to silence her powerful voice, but Ester’s life and spirit were ultimately irrepressible.

Life in Every Breath brings Ester’s story back to the fore—and showcases one of the most fascinating women of the twentieth century.

©2017 Fatima Bremmer. (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2022 by Gloria Nneoma Onwuneme.

Critic reviews

“Laura Jennings’s expressive narration pairs perfectly with Swedish journalist Bremmer’s gracefully written debut. … Listeners will be moved as Jennings emphatically narrates Nordström’s struggles with fame and alcohol addiction and her joy and heartbreak over her lifelong secret love affair with Carin Wærn Frisell, when same-sex love back then was labeled both a crime and a mental disorder. Bremmer and Jennings capture the larger-than-life, often frenetic spirit of this feminist trailblazer who pushed back against social norms to try to thrive professionally and personally; her story should inspire all those who continue to fight gender bias and homophobia today.”—Library Journal

“Journalist Bremmer debuts with a tantalizing biography of Sweden’s first investigative reporter, Ester Blenda Nordström…Richly textured and vividly told, this is an intriguing portrait of a pioneering woman and her era.”—Publishers Weekly

“Despite her fame, time has made Nordström fade into obscurity, but Bremmer does her justice with a story that remains relevant and captivating today.”—Shondaland