May 1, 2011
English war widow Anna arrives in Norway in 1946 for a short visit with her friend Molly, who also married a Norwegian pilot during World War II. Anna intends only to meet her late husbands father but finds herself reluctantly captivated by the land, the people, and, most of all, by the journal of an intrepid, free-spirited, and passionate ancestor-by-marriage named Ingrid, whose house in a secluded valley Anna is pressured to accept. Along the way, Anna discovers that it is possible to love again, and gradually she regains her zest for life with her father-in-laws lawyer, the handsome and virile Alexander Ringstad. Lakers chatty postwar historical saga benefits from her personal experience as the English wife of a Norwegian and their reconstruction of a centuries-old home. Vivid, descriptive passages are matched by a sincere appreciation for the real heroes of Norway, the ordinary folk who defied the Nazis throughout their occupation, and the shocking deprivations they endured long after the war ended.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)