Occupied: A Novel Based on a True Story
A thin frame story introduces a narrator traveling to Norway in 1999 and sitting down to listen to his father tell stories about his life there. The real story begins in 1936 and is told by young Trygve in a series of journal entries that narrate his move to the Norwegian town of Vanse with his brothers Thoralf and Odin and their pregnant mother. The family is saving money to rejoin the father, working in the U.S., and the subsequent journal entries relate the simple round of Trygve’s life—chores, fishing, and meals—dotted with memorable events including the birth of sister Thelma, Odd’s polio, and building an igloo.
Halfway through the book, in 1940, the German army occupies Vanse, and the villagers must adapt to surveillance, coercion, and rations. As shortages increase and food becomes scarce, Trygve finds himself drawn into helping the Norwegian Underground, first by being lookout for their secret meetings and then by spying on the nearby air and seaport. When the war turns against the Germans, Trygve’s work becomes increasingly dangerous, but he is determined to help any way in he can—though he risks his family’s lives in the process.
Blorstad draws on his father’s real-life journals to tell this family story, and because it’s a family story, all of the characters are solid, brave, good-humored, decent people; the only real conflict is added by war. But the details of everyday life are so exact and tangible that they bring the historical place alive: readers can taste the lefse, smell the peat cakes, hear the shouts of German soldiers, and admire one young man’s bravery as he tries to protect his family and his way of life, whatever the cost.
