To Siberia A Novel [Paperback]

I was fourteen and a half when the Germans came. On that 9th April we woke to the roar of aeroplanes swooping so low over the roofs of the town that we could see the black iron crosses painted on the underside of their wings when we leaned out of the windows and looked up.


In this exquisite novel, readers will find the crystalline prose and depth of feeling they adored inOut Stealing Horses, a literary sensation of 2007.

A brother and sister are forced ever more closely together after the suicide of their grandfather. Their parents' neglect leaves them wandering the streets of their small Danish village. The sister dreams of escaping to Siberia, but it seems increasingly distant as she helplessly watches her brother become more and more involved in resisting the Nazis.

Discussion Questions
1. The narrator, referenced only as Sistermine by her brother, is never named. This increases the detachment between narrator and reader. Why do you think Petterson chose to leave her nameless?
2. Sistermine mentions her family's dynamics early and often. I am fond of my father. My father is fond of Jesper. Jesper is fond of me& (p. 7-8). Why does she feel this way? Do events later in the story support this statement?
3. Jasper and Sistermine both eerily predict events that end up coming true. What do you make of Jasper foretelling his grandfather's suicide before it happens? Of Sistermine wishing the German truck to disappear? Do these nearly impossible predictions make you question the narrator's credibility?
4. Sistermine spends much of the book following her brother's lead. She states, I have a will of my own, I do not do everything I'm told, but I want to be with Jesper. He does things that are original, I like that& (p. 11). Throughout the novel, she is constantly seeking connections with Jesper and trying to keep up with him. Do you believe she truly has a will of herlC!