false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181449552m/1155037.jpg 1155037 8 Evoking the severe beauty of the tundra his heroine dreams of, Petterson's second novel fashions a subtle stoicism reminiscent of Katherine Anne Porter's work. A unnamed narrator recollects her girlhood in Denmark, on a farm in Vrangbaek near Skagen, where she and her beloved brother, Jesper, live with their hymn-writing mother, carpenter father and stern grandfather. The family falls on hard times when their grandfather hangs himself, leaving behind the explanation, "I can't go on any longer." But the young girl endures the changes in her life, including the new rancor of the Nazi occupation of Denmark, by finding security and hope in her deepening relationship with Jesper. She and Jesper sense there is no future in Denmark and long to go elsewhere: she yearns for the cold stillness of Siberia, he for the desert tumult of Morocco. Jesper, a vivacious and sharp idealist ("I'm no peasant, I'm a proletarian," he shouts at the local baron), opens his innocent sister's eyes to the diminishing possibilities and hypocrisies of life in North Jutland. When the Nazis invade, Jesper joins the resistance and, under suspicion, flees to Morocco, leaving his worshipful sister behind. Instead of fulfilling her own goal of a Siberian idyll, she swallows her disappointment and her dreams of travel. Although Petterson addresses the impact of WWII, alluding to the resistance movement and the coexistence of gentile and Jewish Danes, the novel focuses on the profusion of little moments shaping the beauty and pathos of a stagnant life. In an infinitely sad but translucent ending in the vein of Porter's "Pale Horse, Pale Rider," the narrator says, "I was so young then, and I remember thinking: I'm twenty-three-years-old, there is nothing left in life. Only the rest." 2811491 1998 To Siberia total:262|5:47|4:80|3:95|2:28|1:12| 262 908 583 97 5 2 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Oct 28 08:35:53 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 06 10:39:21 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 30 18:44:51 -0800 2007 Wed Jan 02 14:26:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 04 02:47:11 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 02:48:58 -0800 2009 episodic reminiscence of one girl’s coming of age in a village at the far north of Denmark. The title refers to the narrator’s childhood dream of making a railroad journey across the continent to the crystalline wastes of what is for her an exotic storybook land. The ear...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 18 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 19:28:40 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 19:29:25 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 11:00:18 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 11:01:45 -0700 2009
The narrator of this story is an unnamed girl called only “Sistermine” by her brother, Jasper. The brother and sister practically have to raise themselves as their parent...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Oct 16 10:47:23 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 08:35:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Mon Feb 16 07:51:21 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 01 09:46:15 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 16 07:51:21 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 21 06:19:28 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 06:44:00 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Nov 19 14:30:07 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 08 13:52:06 -0800 2009
Petterson's prose moves the reader--I felt like I was in a different world, stark yet gentile, narrated by an unnamed Danish girl living in Jutland who dreams of someday moving Siberia.

Subtle yet powerful, this story is about growing up, the ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 08 05:59:54 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 05:59:54 -0800 2009 To Siberia. Spot-on depictions of �Sistermine� growing up in the midst of war-torn Denmark at once rejuvenate and devastate as they successfully connect the reader with the evolving emotions driving...more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Oct 01 07:21:11 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 12:30:13 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 20:33:58 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 13:18:45 -0700 2009 once more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Aug 09 12:32:40 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 13:51:03 -0700 2009 Out Stealing Horses also by Per Petterson, To Siberia is a coming-of-age story that takes place in Scandinavia in the 1940s and '50s. Both novels address troubled parent-child relationships, neglect and estrangement.

The protagonist in To Siberia is a teenage girl who, inspired ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Oct 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 08:43:15 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 15:47:06 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Oct 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 09:57:23 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 08:38:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Aug 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 17:38:50 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 17:42:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Oct 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Nov 20 19:30:02 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 19:30:47 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Mar 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Feb 21 15:53:33 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 25 18:52:57 -0700 2009
One reason I often prefer crime fiction is that the author will put characters in interesting situations and let...more...]]> 0 1 false false Tue Nov 18 14:20:28 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 14:52:24 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Sat Oct 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 08:33:44 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 13:31:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1155037