Written by Anna NormannI loved it! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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Today I'm delighted to be part of the blog tour for The Silent Resistance. I really enjoyed this story and the background notes taught me something I had not previous known.
As always, I begin by thanking Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for the invitation to join this tour, and the author, Anna Normann and her publisher, Allison & Busby, for a free digital copy to review.
The blurb:
The Silent ResistanceOccupied Norway, 1944. Anni endures the war alone, aiding the resistance while longing for news of her sailor husband. Her daughter, Ingrid, is her joy, and Anni is determined to keep her safe. But when a German official is billeted at their home, danger escalates, and Anni faces an agonising dilemma.
London, 1952. Ingrid has been trying to understand her mother’s mysterious disappearance at the war’s end. Clinging to Anni’s promise that she would always come back for her, Ingrid sets out to discover what happened all those years ago.
When I read the blurb I thought I might enjoy The Silent Resistance but I wasn't expecting the rollercoaster of emotions it put me through.
I knew nothing about the what happened in Norway during WWII, only that since 1947, a Christmas tree has been sent from the people of Oslo to London and is displayed in Trafalgar Square, and that there is a Norwegan church in Rotherhithe, South East London, so I was very much interested to learn more about how this terrible war affected the Norwegian people.
This story has a dual-timeline which follows the lives of Anni, in WWII, a young married woman with a young daughter, Ingrid, and Anni's mother-in-law, Guri. The two women are part of an underground network, helping to smuggle people out of Norway to Shetland. Some are Norwegians who've found themselves wanted by the occupation forces, and some are downed airmen trying to get home. Every journey has risks and I could feel the tension rising the more I became absorbed in the story.
When Anni suddenly has a German official billeted in her home, she has to be more careful to protect herself, her daughter and her contacts.
After the war, Anni goes missing and Ingrid is living with her grandmother, Guri. Ingrid suffers from bullying at school and Guri decides she would be better with her father, who is in England.
In later life, we learn that Ingrid has grown up in England and has always wanted to know what happened to her mother, but it is only after Guri and her father have died that snippets of information come to light. How she follows the breadcrumbs, still suffering the prejudice and injustice of that time, to uncover what became of her mother is compellingly told in this thought-provoking novel.
The Silent Resistance held my attention throughout, and I struggled not to jump ahead and read the last chapters to satisfy my need to know what had happened. Even now I find myself still thinking about this story days after finishing it. I was very much interested in the accompanying notes on the 1942 Bigamy Law. This was something else I'd not known about prior to reading this novel and I felt the value of learning something new along with reading such a gripping and heart-breaking story.
I would highly recommend this story to anyone who enjoys WWII historical fiction with strong female characters.
Purchase from:
Amazon UK Amazon US Amazon CA Amazon AU Amazon IN
Allison and Busby Foyles Waterstones
| Author Bio – Anna Normann |
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Anna Normann is the pseudonym of authors Anan Singh and Natalie Normann, and it all happened because of a bet. Sometime in the nineteen eighties, while watching a movie with a so-so plot, they started arguing about improving the plot and how they could write a better story than that mess. And then Anan’s wife said ‘I bet you can’t’ … Since then, they have published seven books together in Norwegian, exploring different genres. Their first novel, set in WW2, won a competition in 1995 for ‘Norway’s best entertainment novel’. |
| Social Media Links – | |
| Web site | https://natalienormannauthor.com/ |
| @natalienormann | |
| Facebook Author Page | Anna Normann/Natalie Normann - Author |
| X | @NatalieNormann1 |
| Bluesky | @natalienormann.bsky.social |
| Threads | natalienormann |
| Linktree | @NatalieNormann |
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