Brothers by Honor
This debut novel captures the tension and intrigue surrounding resistance activities during the German occupation of Norway in the early 1940s. Teenager Kory Mowat has envisioned a planned and ordered life when all is derailed by the German occupation. Joining the local resistance group, almost as a lark, he and his friends become embroiled in the hidden sinister demands that emerge, not a game to be taken lightly. Mowat soon discovers that his own strengths and weakness, along with personal loyalties, will be severely tested.
This is a detailed narrative told in the first person with compelling dialogue; the reader is immersed in complex personal relationships. Long-standing friendships are strained while new and promising associations temporarily form and dissolve. The overall tension of living under a foreign regime forces inhabitants into previously unimagined ways to exist and maintain a semblance of normality. Mortal danger lurks, ever-present, as the war evolves.
Yeager offers a comprehensive portrait of a young man confronting a new world. Mowat must decide how and in what ways he might aid the local resistance endeavors, or should he even embrace, as many of his peers have already done, this uncertain reality? As the humiliation of restrictions becomes increasingly severe with identity cards, photos, police sweeps, food rationing, curfews, along with a censored media, the accentuation rises. Overarching the totality of the experience, what might be accomplished by minor acts of defiance, and what are the possible consequences?
This thoughtful and realistically grounded novel explores complex and intertwined notions. There is no set-piece denouement; rather, the reader is left to ponder how the remaining years of young Mowat might evolve.
