**** stars. This is actually a review of the book: *** BERLIN POPLARS by Anne Ragde ***. The setting is modern day Trondheim, Norway. An 80-year-old woman suffers a stroke and sets in play an amazing interaction among her 3 alienated sons and a couple of surprise additions to the family. Tor tends the family farm and dotes on his mother and his pigs; Margido is a devout Christian funeral director; Erland is homosexual and lives in Copenhagen with his partner. The three have not been in the same room together for many years. To this group we add a distant and compliant husband, a granddaughter who has never met her father, and Erland's partner. Having grown up on a farm with parents of Norwegian heritage, I found this book to be a poignant and funny reminder of what that meant concerning meals, farm chores, long-standing family quarrels and especially the "ease" with which older traditional Norwegian men express profound emotions. Why is a book set in Norway titled "Berlin Poplars"? Can there be any reconciliation? If you anticipate the ending you are a smarter cookie than I. Highly recommend this book, especially to those of us who are older Norskies. The book is not carried by the Hennepin County system, but is available through interlibrary loan and of course on line and in book stores.

posted Mar 9, 2013 at 8:21PM

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