Her father wants her to accompany him on a journey to his native village in Saxony. It is only a few years since the fall of the Berlin wall. She is a writer, has a husband and two young children, and is loath to go with him. The trip she eventually agrees to make, turns out to be a journey into her father’s past. He was born in Germany in the period between the two world wars, grew up with his friend Heinrich who went to the Eastern Front, and followed his parents to Norway, where he married. It turned out to be a marriage between two very different people, who hurt each other deeply. Between them stands the novel’s protagonist; she is an only child in trench warfare. When things get too difficult at home, she is sent away to relatives, but all she wants is to return home to take care of her mother and father. She loses herself in love affairs as early as she can. Then she begins to write.

During their travels through Germany, her father opens himself up to her in a way she is not prepared for, and may not be capable of responding to. Only many years later, when she is writing about the trip, is she able to recognise herself in him.

A King in Snow is a profoundly gripping novel about belonging and sensuality, passion and the forbidden.