“One mother’s impossible choice. One daughter’s epic search”
- Book: The Silent Resistance
- Location: Haugesund, London
- Author: Anna Normann
Anna Normann is the collaborative pseudonym of two authors for whom, both individually and together, documenting WWII in novel form, is a passion. I find it difficult to believe that this is the first book for either of them, to have been translated into English and I am definitely hooked! The level of research they have undertaken is clear in the tense, detailed timeline of events and the gripping dynamics between the characters, which when woven together, brings everything to life in a way which doesn’t always make for comfortable reading and is a highly emotional journey throughout.
This intense, heart-breaking story of love and war, took me from the latter period of WWII through to the 1980s and although the chapters did travel back and forth along that timeline, they were well signposted and flowed effortlessly. Whilst the multiple locations of Norway, England and Germany were well described and kept me, as an avid ‘armchair traveller’, totally entertained, this book was all about the characters, with the dual narration which switched perspectives between Anni and her daughter Ingrid, being especially immersive and enthralling and documented with wonderful empathy.
With my own limited schooldays knowledge of WWII events, I was aware that Norway was a country which both suffered and survived enemy occupation. However, I was completely unaware that the Norwegian government had spent much of that period in exile in London, from where they remotely passed emergency wartime legislation on an unsuspecting Norwegian female population, which appeared to be almost inhumane, archaic and immoral in its range and scope. There seemed to be little cognisance or recognition of the huge undertaking and commitment of the women left at home when their menfolk had gone to war, who risked their lives daily to keep hope alive in the country by being part of the ‘silent resistance’, which thwarted the enemy at every given opportunity and saved countless lives along the way. Absolutely, some of the women had willingly become the mistresses of German officers and those females felt the full wrath of the local, loyal Norwegian citizens, being labelled ‘Nazi sluts’. However many, like Anni, had found themselves hosts to uninvited German guests, who were billeted in their homes for the duration of hostilities. For those innocent and often brave women, to then find themselves left alone to get by in whatever way possible, after having been abandoned by their menfolk and their elected government, must have been horrifying.
The dynamics between three generations of strong women, Guri, her daughter-in-law Anni, and her granddaughter Ingrid, are exceptionally and beautifully well drawn and poignant, with the secondary cast of characters being equally seamlessly integrated into an engrossing storyline which has its roots based firmly in a strong sense of Norwegian social history. Notwithstanding the terrible cost of war suffered by those brave souls on the frontline, the consequences borne by an innocent civilian population are highlighted in great detail in this bittersweet storyline. Families torn apart and persecuted for their efforts at survival and the unbreakable, often invisible bonds, which exist between mother and daughter, over almost a lifetime of separation. At some point in their lives, Guri, Anni and Ingrid must all come to terms with the decision made by son, husband and father, Lars, which sets off the unstoppable chain of events, from which there seems to be no return or reconciliation, save for the dogged determination of Ingrid and her husband, with help and support from a completely unexpected source, who forms an integral part of Ingrid’s life when she is torn from her mother in such a shattering way.
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