“Though Howarth's writing voice comes off a bit stilted at times, his narrative of the survival attempts of Jan Baalsrud after his sabotage mission to Nazi occupied Norway failed, leaving him the only survivor, is thrilling and compelling enough to counter this. Though Howarth probably takes more time than is needed in fleshing out the incidents -- all of which are historical and have been clarified by the actual persons involved -- one easily sympathizes with Jan, a Norwegian exiled from his home, devastated that his attempt to help his people resist has failed, and trying relentlessly to get to Sweden so he can escape from the Germans. Despite his almost incredible luck at many points, and the help of many brace and sacrificing Norwegian villagers, Jan faces horrible setbacks, and ends up losing all but one of his toes to frostbite. He endures weeks in the elements, at one point is buried alive, and becomes so weak that he cannot even kill himself with his pistol when he judges his situation to be hopeless. Eventually he is rescued by the S´mi, a very fascinating group of animistic natives of Scandinavia (though not Nordic by blood themselves) who are migrant in their lifestyle, narrowly factual in their thinking, and reliant on the reindeer for their livelihood. I don't know if I'd recommend this book to a casual reader, but for one who is interested either in World War II or in Norwegian history should enjoy this well enough. ”
Michael wrote this review Saturday, October 10 2009.
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