Lifetimes
Ystaas, Torunn: Livstid
The year is 1943 and Norway is still under the jackboot of the Nazis. An exhausted Russian prisoner of war stumbles into a farm on the shores of the Hardanger fjord. He has been on the run from his Nazi captors for over a year.
The farmer’s three sons are members of the Resistance Army. At risk of their lives they maintain radio contact with London and also aid saboteurs sent over from England. Frida Nord, a deaf mute, and her father, who are also wanted by the Nazis, have likewise found refuge on the farm. The Russian, Alexei, becomes deeply infatuated with Frida. After a while, however, his nerves get the better of him and he falls victim to fear and a longing for home. In the end he loses his grip on reality, with the result that he becomes a danger to all.
Firmly rooted as it is in real events, Lifetimes is a genuine page-turner, a gripping read from beginning to end.
First published: 2003, Aschehoug Fiction
Torunn Ystaas: Biography and bibliography
