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| To Siberia: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Per Petterson
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy New: $13.06
You Save: $8.94 (41%)
New (34) Used (9) from $12.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 3026
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 1555975062
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781555975067
ASIN: 1555975062
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
I was fourteen and a half when the Germans came. On that 9th April we woke to the roar of aeroplanes swooping so low over the roofs of the town that we could see the black iron crosses painted on the underside of their wings when we leaned out of the windows and looked up. In this exquisite novel, readers will find the crystalline prose and depth of feeling they adored in Out Stealing Horses, a literary sensation of 2007. A brother and sister are forced ever more closely together after the suicide of their grandfather. Their parents’ neglect leaves them wandering the streets of their small Danish village. The sister dreams of escaping to Siberia, but it seems increasingly distant as she helplessly watches her brother become more and more involved in resisting the Nazis.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Stark and poetic October 4, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is a poignant, almost desperate story of a young girl and her brother growing up in northern Denmark during World War II and the life-altering ramifications following the Nazi invasion of Denmark.
The sparse, almost poetically written story is recounted by a 60 year-old woman looking back on her childhood and her special closeness to her older brother. Growing up in hard economic times in a remote part of Denmark with a family focused on survival left little room for love and nurture. The siblings learn to rely on each other instead and like all children growing up in small towns, they dream of the day they will leave: our narrator dreams of taking the Trans-Siberian railroad, while her brother longs for the day he can head off to Morocco.
Family tragedy forces the narrator to rely even more on her brother and later, as he becomes more involved in the Nazi resistance, his actions will lead to events that will change not only the directions their lives take, but also their perceptions of the world and the people in it. This is as much a tale of how events shape the person we become as it is a stark coming-of-age story.
Concentration on the part of the reader is mandatory: time and place will change quickly, often within a single sentence. You will not find a comprehensive history of the Nazi invasion of Denmark here. The novel is more like a series of snapshots which, when pieced together, reveal the personal consequences of an historical event.
If you are looking for a quick, easily digestible read this is not the book you are looking for. But if you are willing to put in the effort, you will be rewarded with beautifully written passages that will stay with you for a lifetime.
Perhaps a good comparison is Cormac McCarthy's The Road...if you enjoyed that, I'd be willing to bet you'll love To Siberia.
Beautifully written... October 5, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
The story is set in a rural, poor fishing village in North Jutland, Denmark in WWII-era. It is told in three sections by an unnamed sixty-year old woman who recalls her life growing up and - specifically, her bond with her brother Jesper (who calls her "Sistermine"). The first section is about her childhood and her family - - the second takes place in her teen years in the days of German occupation - - and finally, the last section takes place in her 20's when she travels through Sweden, Denmark and Norway and eventually returns home.
Sistermine and Jesper do not get much love or affection from their pious Mother and often silent hunchback Father. So, they grow up together unsupervised sharing late night adventures and experiences. They grow to learn that "the world was far bigger than the town I lived in," and they look forward to "my own great journey." Jesper yearns to move to the warm climate of Morocco while Sistermine has her sights set on Siberia. The German occupation shatters the idyllic setting and future they have drawn up for themselves. Jesper gets involved in the German resistance movement and eventually has to run to Sweden - and Sistermine watches him depart on a boat. She eventually wanders through Scandinavia trying to find meaning and purpose in life - fighting constant loneliness, missing her brother and struggling to connect in her relationships with others - and waiting to reconnect with Jesper.
"I'm twenty-three years old, there is nothing left in life. Only the rest."
"The days go by, and I go with them," she says, "but I do not count them."
This story is somber, solemn, sorrowful, desolate and lonely.
Petterson works magic with beautiful haunting prose of people and place.
"My mother is velvet, my mother is iron. My father often stays silent and sometimes over dinner he picks up the burning hot pan by its iron handle and holds it until I have filled my plate, and when he puts it back I can see the red marks on his hand."
He uses simple, spare, stark language not unlike Cormac McCarthy ("The Road" / "All The Pretty Horses") where you get to share in the simplest delights in life.
"I have to stand on the pedals (of my bicyle) so as not to get a pain in the bum, and then I look out over mustard fields growing a meter high on each side. A puff of wind and everything moves."
If there is one criticism of this work - he doesn't close many open loops. The memories recalled by Sistermine are shared in a dream-like state and often with deep sorrow and loss. Dark family tensions and tragic family events occur and yet you never gain much of an understanding of why. For example, a family member commits suicide. "The paper was folded twice without a speck on it and bore a note in his handwriting: I cannot go on any longer." Why? - - Mother and Family rarely show any affection to each or to their children. "I don't understand it, they never touch each other." Why? - - Sistermine's school friend dies. Why? - - Significant tensions exist between Sistermine's parents and grandparents yet you don't get a peak into Why? Perhaps I was looking for a nice red ribbon to tie it all together for a Disney finish - and life isn't so tidy - yet I found as beautiful as this book was written - it often left me unsatisfied with not knowing.
 Gem February 8, 2000
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This beautiful, haunting coming-of-age tale set in wartime (WWII) Denmark is a rarity in contemporary fiction. Petterson builds character and place so quietly that at first you (being a contemporary reader) may want more, but in part 2, when the German army invades and the plot kicks in, you'll be glad for it; in the end the payoff is immense. Give it a shot, and the time; you won't regret it -- particularly those of you in the States, where the book is unavailable.
This guy has got it! April 21, 2007
How often can you find an author who is able to satisfactorily mix lucid prose with a compelling story that motivates you to go out and buy everything he has published in English?
The story cojures up a magical sense of mutual bond between a brother and sister unmatched by anything I have read previously.
This guy was just chosen by the Dubin Impac Awards as one of top eight fiction writers for 2007, and now I can see why!
The best thing out of the Scandinavian literary tradition since NEXO!
N.B. Dubin Impac Award to be announced June 14
Poignant and poetic October 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having read and reviewed Per Petterson's "Out Stealing Horses" a while ago, I had no idea that this was an earlier work. Just as with "Out Stealing Horses", Petterson is a consummate writer who is able to evoke the complexities within human relationships. Here, the focus is on a pair of siblings - older brother Jesper and younger sister Sistermine, who live in a small town in northern Denmark, on the North Sea. Spanning the years 1934-1947, the story traces the pair's dreams and strong kinship through all sorts of travails.
The two are drawn closer to each other because their own parents seem unable to provide emotionally - and each dream of escape - Sistermine wishes to go to Siberia, and Jesper to Morocco. The Nazi invasion throws their lives into further turmoil - Jesper works for the resistance and Sistermine faces a harsh life under the Nazi occupiers.
The story goes on to tell what happens to both siblings and Per Petterson deftly portrays the complex lives of his characters, both within and without. Highly recommended.
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