Stones Don't Speak - WWII fiction beyond the Holocaust - Nazi occupied Norway

Welcome to Nazi-occupied Norway where people try to maintain a sense of fragile and nervous normalcy. Yes, people still attend classical music concerts (as long as the program is ethnically neutral and doesn't include pieces by German composers). Regular flour is in short supply, so you have to get creative about making pancakes. Sure, they taste a little chalky, but if you add enough berry jam, they taste just like they did in the good old days. If you are a woman who is "lucky" to have naturally blonde hair, you just might capture the heart of a Nazi officer who will make your life considerably more pleasant.

You don't get too many books covering the occupation of countries like Holland and Norway. Nordic nations were considered en par with Germans more or less in terms of "racial purity". I almost wonder if authors hesitate to write on this subject, because n their eyes the Holocaust dwarfs the suffering of the Dutch and the Norwegian population. They are afraid of being met with "How dare you complain? You don't know real suffering." I've actually met authors who confessed to that. They say, "Who cares about our stories?" Well, those stories need to be told, because they involve real men and women who took part in the resistance movement. So I applaud author Gry Finsnes for writing her Tall King's Country series. "Stones Don't Speak" is her second book in the series, a sequel to "Vanished in Berlin". To set the stage, you have a German musician Friedrich who falls in love with a Norwegian pianist Ellen. Given that their respective countries are at war, the lovers face that uncomfortable dilemma. Can you still be a German patriot if you hate the Nazi regime? "Stones Don't Speak" picks up with Ellen back in Norway, trying to reestablish a relationship with her ambivalent parents and contemplating joining the resistance movement, which entails pretending to get chummy with the Nazi occupiers and tolerating a great deal of unwanted sexual attention with a straight face. But hey, wartime is not the time to get squeamish and prudish. She must put her disgust aside for a greater cause.

Author Gry Finsnes has already won my respect with her understated eloquence and no-nonsense, no-melodrama narrative style. She has that seasoned temperance of a worldly, well-traveled individual with a broad perspective. I adore her Nordic, masculine style without any needless hysteria. Her ability to describe dramatic events in a matter-of-factly, laconic fashion is what sets her works apart.