HC RRP $19.95
ISBN 9781419708961
Reviewed by Anastasia
Gonis
Thirteen year old Astri
and her little sister Greta are left with their aunt when father goes to America
from Norway to establish a new life. But the unwanted Astri is sold to a goatman
who takes her away to his hovel. This serves the aunt’s purpose well. But how
well is not revealed until much later.
Astri’s one consuming
thought is to escape, get Greta, and set out for America to be reunited their
father. This one thought motivates her life; the thing that powers her every
thought and breath every moment of every day.
She discovers a mute girl
that spins wool while locked away in the goatman’s storage shed. Who is this
girl? How did she come to be there and what is her story?
Astri’s power of
storytelling fuels her belief that all will be well. It is these stories that
nurture hers and Greta’s, and the spinning girl’s strength, courage and
determination.
Her adventure morphs into
a journey of discovery. Secrets that would otherwise have never been uncovered
but for the journey she embarked on, are revealed and truth brings reality to her
stories and restores her faith in life once more. She proves to be a heroine of
great proportions.
This enchanted story is
inspired by ‘a passage from the diary’ that the author’s ‘great-great-grandmother
kept when she migrated from Norway to America in the nineteenth century.’ It is
a magical tale drawing on Norwegian folklore, beautifully told in an amazing prose
structure and a delicate, yet powerful narrative voice.
