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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
Third reading July 2020:
Audiobook this time, in the car on the way to Norway where all the book's action takes place! We even hiked to the cave he hid in above the town of Manndalen.
Second reading January 2020:
The first time I read this book was when we were living in the UAE and the story was all the more incredible due to the foreign landscape it took place in. Skiing as a mode of transportation! Twilight at midnight! Snowstorms in May! Now, reading it in Finland, it is even MORE amazing since I know first-hand the conditions these people had to work in to rescue each other. The ticking time bomb of the spring thaw with its wet and cold and mush is a formidable foe and almost as much of a villain as the Germans are in this book.
Aside from some, um, "quaint" ideas about women and the Sámi people (put on your best 1950s mid-Atlantic accent and imagine you are narrating archival footage of Norwegian women skiing, or Sámi people herding reindeer, and you've just about got it!), this is a truly excellent read. It will fill you up with hope and appreciation for what people will do to save friends and even strangers.
First reading December 2011:
A spare and unemotional read about a British spy's amazing escape from German-occupied Arctic Norway during WWII. Survival stories often focus on the iron will of the individual. This one is different in that it includes the stories of those who risked all to help the spy survive.
Audiobook this time, in the car on the way to Norway where all the book's action takes place! We even hiked to the cave he hid in above the town of Manndalen.
Second reading January 2020:
The first time I read this book was when we were living in the UAE and the story was all the more incredible due to the foreign landscape it took place in. Skiing as a mode of transportation! Twilight at midnight! Snowstorms in May! Now, reading it in Finland, it is even MORE amazing since I know first-hand the conditions these people had to work in to rescue each other. The ticking time bomb of the spring thaw with its wet and cold and mush is a formidable foe and almost as much of a villain as the Germans are in this book.
Aside from some, um, "quaint" ideas about women and the Sámi people (put on your best 1950s mid-Atlantic accent and imagine you are narrating archival footage of Norwegian women skiing, or Sámi people herding reindeer, and you've just about got it!), this is a truly excellent read. It will fill you up with hope and appreciation for what people will do to save friends and even strangers.
First reading December 2011:
A spare and unemotional read about a British spy's amazing escape from German-occupied Arctic Norway during WWII. Survival stories often focus on the iron will of the individual. This one is different in that it includes the stories of those who risked all to help the spy survive.
Riveting. I don't really know much about the WWII experience in Scandanavia, but this was a fascinating story of a guy who just would.not.give.up. I'd love to read more about the rest of this guy's life sometime.
The writing style did not allow me to get into the book so I’m DNFing it for now.
Terrific book about an exciting rescue in WWII occupied Norway. Jan is the sole survivor of a failed attempt to organize Norwegian resistance. His fortitude and optimism reminded me of Louis in Unbroken, but the Norwegian patriots who risked all to help a stranger in their German occupied country are the true heroes. Howarth does a great job describing the frigid landscape and conditions of arctic Norway and some idea of the life of the people who manage to live there. I'd like to know more about the Lapp people and wonder how accurate this 1955 description of them is today. I'm glad I wasn't put off by the title We Die Alone which to me doesn't really doesn't fit the book. Although Spoiler Alert I guess we all do. Four and a half stars rounded up for restored faith in humanity.
OK, in this world, some people are tougher than others. This book is about one guy who offers an answer the next time someone asks well, exactly how tough was he? And, then, well, it only takes a couple of hundred pages to explain....
Having said that, I didn't love the book. It's a good book, and the story is fascinating, ... but, but ... What I found most frustrating (although not enough to stop reading) was that the story is incredible ... absolutely defying belief ... but the telling felt more workmanlike than (to my mind) the epic, extraordinary tale deserved. And, after the action-packed opening sequence, the tale bogs down because, well, it's non-fiction, and ... as the title makes clear ... endurance represents one of most unimaginable aspects of the book (and story).
Well worth reading, particularly to the extent it's a relatively small (short) book. The book is also worthwhile to the extent it's just one of a(nother) million small (individual? micro?) stories that took place off the front pages, outside of the leaders' situation/meeting/briefing rooms, and largely outside of the public's consciousness.
Having said that, I didn't love the book. It's a good book, and the story is fascinating, ... but, but ... What I found most frustrating (although not enough to stop reading) was that the story is incredible ... absolutely defying belief ... but the telling felt more workmanlike than (to my mind) the epic, extraordinary tale deserved. And, after the action-packed opening sequence, the tale bogs down because, well, it's non-fiction, and ... as the title makes clear ... endurance represents one of most unimaginable aspects of the book (and story).
Well worth reading, particularly to the extent it's a relatively small (short) book. The book is also worthwhile to the extent it's just one of a(nother) million small (individual? micro?) stories that took place off the front pages, outside of the leaders' situation/meeting/briefing rooms, and largely outside of the public's consciousness.
The movie takes place during World War II and depicts the true story of Jan Baalsruds amazing escape from the German army from the coast of Northern Norway and across the border to the neutral country Sweden. Jan Baalsrud is on a sabotage mission from England to Norway together with 11 other soldiers in the winter of 1943 in a fishing boat when they are attacked by a German patrolboat. Jan Baalsrud is the only one who manages to escape and sets off towards Sweden through the enormous amounts of snow and the steep mountains of Norway. The local communities where he passes through help him despite the danger of being arrested and killed. Jan Baalsrud, snowblind and having to cut off his toes because of frost-damage survives alone in the mountains for weeks. The locals are constantly trying to get him over to Sweden, but German patrols and the winter storms delay their departure.
This movie Nine Lives (1957)
Ni liv (original title) is available at You Tube.
Director: Arne Skouen
David Howarth book "We Die Alone"
James L. Shute translation (uncredited)
Arne Skouen
Stars: Jack Fjeldstad, Henny Moan and Alf Malland
This movie Nine Lives (1957)
Ni liv (original title) is available at You Tube.
Director: Arne Skouen
David Howarth book "We Die Alone"
James L. Shute translation (uncredited)
Arne Skouen
Stars: Jack Fjeldstad, Henny Moan and Alf Malland
The story of Jan Baalsrud's escape and rescue from Nazi-occupied Norway during WWII is gripping. Some of it is really hard to comprehend how he survived in brutal conditions, while injured. But google tells me he really did survive and escape. Some of the language in this book, written in the 50s, is dated and the way the indigenous Norwegian population is described is offensive today. This part came at the end, because in the end it was the Sami that saved Jan and brought him to a hospital in Sweden. So in the end, I felt ambivalent about the history. I do think that Jan went through a horrendous ordeal, and by all rights he should have died.
This is an incredible escape story. This guy survived being buried in snow for weeks, after getting frostbite, cutting off his own toes, skiing though a blizzard, and getting shot by Germans.