Til Sibiria
In TIL SIBIRIA (To Siberia), a woman looks back on her childhood years in a little fisherman’s town in northern Jutland during the thirties and forties. Her father is not doing well, and her deeply religious mother seeks comfort in psalm writing.
Once a month, her grandfather hitches the horses to the carriage and rides into town to drink himself into a stupor.
They hear about the Spanish Civil War, and one day, the Germans have come to town, and the radio delivers the message from Stauning, telling people to refrain from any resistance. Behind the scenes, the drunkard, Baron Biegler, grand smuggler, Ernst Bremer, and the traitor, Gestapo Jørgensen, are plotting.
The relationship between the narrator and her big brother, Jesper, who is fearless and determined to join the resistance, constitutes the core of the book.
Their fates are intertwined somehow: Jesper dreams of Morocco, while she dreams of Siberia. No matter where she goes, he will always be the most important person in her life.
TIL SIBIRIA is the heartrending story of the life of Per Petterson’s mother.
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