Almost four years ago, Stephie, now nearly sixteen, and her eleven-year-old sister Nellie, were sent from Nazi-occupied Vienna to Sweden by their parents. She lives in the city on the mainland and attends school. Nellie lives on a remote island in the Goteborg archipelago with her foster parents. Stephie worries about her education, her sister, her faith, and her parents, who are in a concentration camp in Austria. Smoothly integrated into this delicate coming of age story are details about how neutral Sweden was affected by the war. The present tense, third-person narration gives the novel an unusual impact. This is the third installment in a quartet of books about Stephie’s experiences as a Jewish refugee in Sweden during World War II. The first, Faraway Island, won the 2010 Batchelder Award. The second, The Lily Pond, was a Batchelder Honor Book in 2012. mjw |
Title: Deep Sea
Author: Annika Thor
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books, Delacorte Press, New York
Copyright: 2015
Original Language: Swedish
Translator: Linda Schenk
Original Title: Havets djup
Original Publisher: Bonnier Carlsen, Stockholm
Original Copyright: 1998
ISBN: 978-0-385-74385-3
Hardcover pages: 229
Age range: 12-16
Genre: Historical fiction
Book setting: Sweden
Author’s ethnicity: Swedish
Author’s residence: Stockholm, Sweden
Awards: Author has won the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpries
Subjects: Jews, Refugees, Sisters, Sweden, World War II |