From School Library Journal
Grade 9 UpASet in a leper hospital in early 19th-century Bergen, Norway, this serious, challenging novel follows the last few years in the life of a 13 year old immured in the facility by those who fear and hate lepers. The diffusely organized text, interrupted by flashbacks to Tora's conflict-ridden childhood, sketchily introduces her beloved mother, who concealed her own disease and took her own life; her weak father; the young neighbor who is her soulmate for life; the stalwart Marthe, who helps Tora survive in the leprosarium; and the difficult and enigmatic Sunniva, who relents toward Tora and teaches her to read. Reading enlarges the girl's mental world as her physical world contracts. Newth gives an unsparing account of the progress of the disease, the desperate treatments (amputation), and the painful death (sometimes by suffocation). Tora's escape from the leprosarium is via her death, where she will rejoin most of the novel's other characters. The story is somber, but not depressing. Despite the miserable poverty and the sadness of the lepers' fate, Tora's determination makes her admirable. Readers may be unsatisfied by the disappearance of Tora's beloved from the narrative, by the half-realized figure of the administrator of the hospital, and by the shadows in Sunniva's story. There are a few sensational touchesATora is nearly raped, there are hints of incest and infanticideAbut no shred of sentimentality. If they stay the course, those who pick up the book out of morbid curiosity may get more psychology and philosophy than they bargained for.APatricia Lothrop-Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
From Newth (The Abduction, 1989), a dense, unusual novel about Tora, 13, who is dying of leprosy in a hospital in 19th- century Bergen, Norway. When Tora contracts the horrible disease, she is yanked from her family's farm and sent to spend the remainder of her life at a leper hospital in Bergen. It's a wretched place, where the ill wail in agony from sores and lost limbs, and cry out at night in desperation and hunger. Tora, one of the more able patients, helps tend to others, and in the process, bonds with the most cruel and miserable patient, Mistress Dybendal, who teaches Tora how to read; reading becomes Tora's sole comfort, giving her the courage to accept her condition. The subject matter is uncommonly intriguing, and the writing evocative, although some of the relationships are troubling: A childhood friend and soul mate, Endre, is presented as a major character and then fades away, while Tora's father, hardly a presence at all, plays a vital role at the end. More authentically depicted are Tora's revelations, forgiveness, and innate goodness; many passages are emotionally harrowing, such as the scene when her feet are amputated. Newth's work is compelling, often heartbreaking, and more than once, triumphant. (Fiction. 12-15) --
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