Fourteen-year-old Espen is biking along a mountain road when a car full of German soldiers pulls up alongside him and asks him to stop. His identity card is checked and he tells the soldier that he is going to visit his uncle who is unwell and lives near Fossen. As he waits for the soldier to check his rucksack, Espen spies Kjell in the car.
Last April, he and Kjell had raced up the hillside into the woods to watch the Germans, their motorcycles, trucks, tanks, cars, wagons and soldiers as they marched along. Kjell was mesmerized by the sheer numbers and strength of the Wehrmacht. However, Espen, using the metaphor of the Norwegian trolls, tells Kjell that once accepting the troll means submitting to its power. In June, when Espen and his sister, Ingrid returned to Lilley from their stay in the countryside, he found Kjell changed. Norway was also changed - now a country occupied by the Nazis.
Espen's rucksack is returned and he arrives at the fox farm. There he meets a woman who calls herself Tante Marie. He gives her the papers he's hidden in his long woolen stockings. The newspapers reveal that the Reichskommissar Terboven has removed Norway's king and government, dissolved parliament, and lists incidents involving Nazis attacking people who are resisting. Espen offers to help, so Tante Marie tells him the resistance is now very organized: Milorg is the military branch, Civorg is the civilian branch and XU is the intelligence.
While he's gorging himself on waffles, Tante Marie explains how dangerous the work will be. The newspapers he brought are illegal as is criticizing the Nazis. She also tells him that the Nazis have abolished the oath of silence of the clergy and can threaten imprisonment if they refuse to give the names of those who oppose the Occupation or Jews who have converted to Christianity. Still, Espen is determined to help and he is given the code name of Odin.
When Espen returns home, he finds Ingrid writing in her journal and warns her to be careful what she writes as the Nazis are searching homes. Ingrid is determined to discover what Espen has been up to since he won't reveal where he was.
While waiting for the ferry to take Espen and his soccer mates down the fjord to Tyssedal where they have a soccer match, Kjell arrives. As they are ridiculing the German soldiers, Kjell encourages his teammates to consider joining the Germans. He tells them that the Germans are here to protect Norway from the British and the Bolsheviks. An argument quickly develops with Kjell accusing the king of Norway of running away and being a traitor. These leads to one of the boys, Stein giving Kjell a bloody nose. Kjell tells Espen he really believes the Germans are here to help but when Espen asks him what he was doing in the car with the Germans, Kjell claims he doesn't remember. As Kjell is Espen's best friend, this makes him wonder what is happening because he's certain Kjell was in the German car.
At the soccer game, one of the players, Aksel takes over. He is furious when Espen allows a goal and sends him to get the ball out of the waters of the fjord. Angry at Aksel's abuse, Espen retrieves the ball which is covered in jellyfish and throws it to an unsuspecting Aksel, infuriating him. When Espen returns home from a soccer victory, he finds the town policemen there to retrieve Espen's scout uniform and he is informed that all scouting is now banned.
In town, Espen tells Kjell that they won and are moving onto the championships. The two boys are watched by Aksel, who is determined to get revenge on all the boys from the soccer team, but especially on Espen. Revenge comes quickly in the form of the soccer team being made into a Nazi team, and Aksel being made captain by a Nazi Brown Shirt. Espen is furious and has no intention of playing on the Nazi soccer team. He follows Stein's example and walks off the field, along with his teammates.
Since none of the other Norwegian teams would join the Nazi association, the soccer players plan to still play the game in secret, just as the Boy Scouts continue to meet in secret. Leif warns Espen not to reveal anything to Kjell. Stein is determined that the five boys who include Per, Ole, Stein, Leif and Epsen work on "saving Norway from the Nazis". The begin constructing a hideaway which they name Oleanna.
In November 1940, Espen is given his first real assignment by Tante Marie: to a revolver left behind in a cabin in Hurlringen, an area filled with Germans. Hurlringen is a resort that has been completely taken over by the Germans including the ski lodge, farms and even family homes. To do this, Espen must ski into the mountains and he is an experienced nordic skier, used to long distances. Espen's mission is successful but he also has to fight the urge to stop and tell Kjell what he's done.
The story jumps ahead to Winter 1942, and the Germans are invading Russia. More and more rules are
put in place: books are banned, concerts are censored, dancing is illegal and teachers, like Mr. Henriksen are arrested. Meanwhile, his former best friend, Kjell is now attending the hird school, the Rikshird and he encourages Espen to join, so that he will be given a good assignment when they are forced to fight. At the train station, Espen's father tells him that eleven hundred teachers were arrested to set an example after many thousands of teachers refused to join the Nazi teachers union. Espen realizes that his father is helping the resistance in his own way and when he overhears a conversation in the station, Espen is given a difficult new assignment.
Meanwhile, Aksel believes that his old soccer group is involved somehow in illegal activity, possibly having formed a Milorg group and he's determined to crack it. He is now part of the Stapo, the Norwegian secret police and possibly soon to be part of the Gestapo. What he needed was to find someone whose family needed medicine.
Living in the fictional village of Lilleby with his parents and his younger sister, Ingrid, Espen is fourteen years old when the Nazis occupy Norway. Although the Germans at first are friendly, Espen watches as his way of life gradually disappears. Gone are scouting and his beloved soccer team. Hoping to undermine the Nazi occupation in any way, Espren joins the resistance as a courier. As he becomes a trusted member he is given more difficult tasks and drawn into the inner circle of the resistance.
Working against Espen are a few of his fellow Norwegians who have decided to side with the Nazi occupiers. Aksel a former soccer team member, who wasn't well liked, is determined to make a name for himself, no matter what the cost may be. There is Kjell, another soccer mate who struggles with cooperating with the Nazis so as to obtain medication for his grandmother. Preus uses these two characters in particular to explore the reasons why some people cooperated with an evil regime and what motivated them to do so.
As the Nazi occupation drags on, and Espren grows up both physically and emotionally, he learns not to hate his occupiers, but to "move toward the light", to shun the emotions of hatred, anger and bitterness that encompass the Nazi ideology. Espren is helped in his work by Ingrid and also a neighbour, Solveig, whom he has a crush on. When Espren's group is compromised and with the Nazi net tightening, Espren must make a choice; stay in Lilleby and risk the lives of others in the resistance or make the dangerous journey to freedom in Sweden. Preus does a wonderful job of building the novel to its exciting, climatic ending.
Discussion
In Shadow on the Mountain, the experiences of Espen are based on those of real life Erling Storrusten, who was a teenager in Lillehammer, Norway during the Nazi occupation.
On April 9, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded an unprepared Norway, a peaceful country whose people looked like the blond haired, blue-eyed Aryan's Hitler thought should rule the world. The people of Norway tried to fight the invasion of their beloved country but were to small to organize much of a military resistance. A puppet regime was installed, headed by Vidkun Quisling, head of the Norwegian Nazi party and King Haakon and his government fled to England. Since they were unable to overthrow their Nazi occupiers, the Norwegian people began to resist in other ways.
Shadow on the Mountain is well written historical fiction that will appeal to younger teens who enjoy war fiction with a touch of excitement and romance, and at times a dash of humour. The story is told from the perspective of four characters, Espen, Ingrid, Aksel and Kjell.
Preus does just about everything she can to help orient and familiarize her young readers with the situation in Norway during the Second World War. There is a prologue which sets the stage for the novel, helping readers understand how neutral Norway was overrun by a large German military contingent. There is a map to help the reader understand the layout of the setting of the novel in Lilleby. The Author's Note at the back sets out more information about Erling Storrusten, and about what is fiction and what is fact in the novel. There is a lovely photo album at the back of the book with pictures of Erling, a timeline, a detailed bibliography and suggestions for further reading.
Espen is a courageous, principled character. Having courage doesn't mean being fearless but doing the right thing in spite of feeling fear. Espen experiences this when he follows Stein off the soccer field. Later on, Leif tells him he would never have acted if Espen hadn't followed Stein because he is afraid of the storm troopers, something Espen also feels.
Espen is determined to save his friend Kjell who he sees transforming before his eyes. As he is drawn deeper into the Nazi fold, Kjell begins to believe the lies about the Jews. He tells Espen, "All great cultures were created by the Germanic race, and of all the people in the world, we - the Nordic people -are the ones with the purest Germanic blood. Against us stand the Jews, who want to destroy us. If we don't win this war, Espen, it will be the end of the Germanic race, and the end of Norway as we know it."
I especially liked the shorter chapters and the breaking up of the novel into years using separate black pages containing interesting and relevant quotes. I highly recommend Shadow on the Mountain both for its quality of writing, and for telling the story of a lesser known aspect of one country's resistance to the Nazi war machine.
Book Details:
Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus
New York: Amulet Books 2012
286 pp.
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