In 1942 Norway, Jewish teenager Ilse Stern and her family are faced with anti-Semitism and German occupation. This family is impacted forever as the Nazis inch closer and closer to them. This novel highlights the real-life horrors of being a Jew in a German-occupied country, but it also brings in the theme of chance, as the novel continues to ask “what if” questions along the way. The novel displays not only Ilse's perspective, but a glimpse into the perspectives and experiences of her family members, neighbors, and her crush Hermann.

2020 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Honor, Norwegian Ministry of Culture prize, and Young People's Book of the Year in Norway.

Author lives in Norway.

Norway. Originally published in Norwegian as Nærmere høst by H. Aschehoug & Co. in 2012. English translation by Rosie Hedger published in the United States by Authur A. Levine Books.Scholastic in 2017.