Aina Basso

Into the Fire

Into the Fire is a young adult novel set against the dramatic backdrop of the witch-hunt. During the decades from 1620 onwards about 80 "witches" were condemned to death by burning at the stake in Finnmark. In this novel we meet two young girls who end up on each side of this incredible and terrifying part of Norwegian history.

The novel has two parallel narrators, wealthy Dorothy from Copenhagen and the poor girl Ellen, who is the daughter of a "wise woman" in Finnmark. Dorothy is given away in marriage –15 years old— to a much older man and goes off with him to Vardo, where Dorothy and Ellen’s lives cross in a dramatic manner. Through these two same aged, but very different girls, we are given a vibrant and poetic depiction of their journey into adulthood, and of a bygone past with both parallels and strong contrasts to our own.

The novel was nominated for both the Brage Prize and The Ministry of Culture’s literary prize in 2012. It has also been nominated for the Nordic Council Prize for children/young adult literature 2013.

Praise:
‘It is an intense story (...) and has a characteristic style and a language with strong imagery, where no word is redundant.’
From the nomination for the Nordic Council Prize for children/youth literature