The Only Brother
This is the story of Leif Jacobssønn, one of the many young men who were robbed of their life during the Second World War. Leif froze to death on his way over the mountains to Sweden in 1942, at only 19 years old.
The grandchild of a fisherman and the son of a sailor, Leif fears water and has promised himself never to leave dry land. He lives with his grandmother, mother and three sisters in the Ladies’ Block in Trondheim. The apartment is so crowded that he seeks refuge in the Nidaros Cathedral. There he thinks about his sailor father, dreams about working in the best bicycle repair shop in town, and worries about who will get wood, shovel snow or chase away the rats if he earns enough money to move out.
He sits reading a letter from his old friend Nils, who claims that the continent is about to catch fire. But what can Leif do? What is demanded of a young man in dark times?
With great poetic power Tove Nilsen gives us a vivid portrait of a real boy in an unreal time.
