Craig Larsen

I have read a lot of World War II novels, but Craig Larsen’s is one of the most realistically brutal that I have encountered. It’s a great read with a lot going on. Larsen has adapted wonderfully Guy de Maupassant's 1884 short story, “The Necklace.”

The story opens in East Berlin in August 1969. Angela Schmidt is a violinist, who, along with other members of an un-named orchestra, are returning to West Berlin. Their bus is searched. It’s an intense scene that sets up this powerful novel. Angela’s nerves are testd as she is smuggling a diamond necklace that bears the Romanov crest along with some photographs that had belonged to her father. Angela’s story comes up now and again throughout the story, but in all honesty, that part could have been left out.

Then the story moves to Poland where a teenage girl, Polina, is taken by the Nazi’s and forced into prostitution. The story shifts again to the main protagonist, Fredrik Gregersen. It’s now the second winter, a harsh winter with brutally cold temperatures, heavy snows and howling winds of the Nazi’s occupation of Denmark. I swear sometimes I could feel how cold it was.

Fredrik is a farmer who is barely getting by. He lives on a farm with his son and daughter. Life is brutal, made even more so by the Nazis. In addition to eeking out survival on her farm, Fredrik is involved in transporting Jewish refugees out of country. During one such event, an Old Jewish man is forced to leave a bag filled with jewels.

This is as far as I’m going to go with the plot as I’m afraid I might give it away if I haven’t already. I enjoyed this novel a lot. I wish there had been a list of characters as there were many and sometimes I had to refer back to previous chapters in order to keep them all straight. But Polina, the young girl who appears in the beginning and the end, offers a searing portrait of what life was like under the Nazi occupation.

The Second Winter receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.… (mer)

Many thanks to the author, who provided a complimentary copy of the book via the publisher. I wrote half of my senior thesis on women’s relational bonds during the Holocaust, and this time period has always interested me. “The Second Winter” provides a different perspective, one with which I was mostly unfamiliar. Rather than focusing on concentration camp experiences or the lives of soldiers, Craig Larsen draws forth various ordinary characters whose lives slowly coalesce throughout the narrative, forming a compelling tapestry of fate and fortune. As such, this novel has a far-reaching scope, reminding me of Vasily Grossman’s “Life and Fate”. Each character’s actions and decisions produce a ripple effect that inevitably has an influence on many others, demonstrating that in either peace or wartime, in occupied or freed territory, no one exists in a vacuum.

Gritty realism characterizes “The Second Winter”. Larsen pulls no punches, and this is not a happily-ever-after tale. Much of the story unfolds in Denmark during WWII, with forays into East and West Berlin a few decades thereafter, and the impact of German occupation and poverty features prominently throughout the storyline. Hardworking people who find themselves with no good prospects are forced into the territory of moral ambiguity, as Larsen adroitly emphasizes. Polina, the primary character, is a young Polish Jew forced into prostitution, and her interactions with both Germans and Danes imbue the tale with a unique viewpoint without being salacious. The commonplace routine of daily life belies the complexities of relationships and motives that make this a notable book worthy of a thoughtful read.… (mer)