What makes two teenage brothers from a small village in Norway, enlist in Waffen-SS?

Oddmund and Sigurd grow up in a small Norwegian village in the 1930s, surrounded by competing ideologies and political tensions. Dark clouds loom over the valley. Europe is on the brink of war, and soon everyone must choose a side. The brothers align themselves with the Germans in the fateful struggle against Stalin.

At just seventeen years old, they both become soldiers in Waffen-SS. While Oddmund fights at Leningrad, Sigurd is sent to Finland. They survive the war, but when they return to a liberated Norway, they must face the consequences of their choices. How will their lives unfold? And what marks do they leave on their descendants and family?

In the novel’s final part, the author himself steps forward—as their nephew and descendant—in an attempt to understand the legacy of Sigurd and Oddmund. The result is a novel of moral gravity, linguistic precision, and emotional force.

Blood is a story about heroes and traitors, the dream of honour and the nightmares that follow, and it portrays a time that bears an unsettling resemblance to our own.

«Eggen’s most ambitious, most personal, and certainly his best novel. [...] Eggen’s prose is razor-sharp, full of historical detail and fascinating observations.»
Adresseavisen, six/six stars

«Eggen delivers a gripping story.»
Dag og Tid

«Well-written nightmare»
Aftenposten

«As a war novel, Blood contains most of the genre’s typical elements such as cold, dirt, venereal diseases, waiting, explosions, blood and misery. [...] Torgrim Eggen is a classic golden pen, agile and light and elegant, even when the subject matter is as grim as here. It is dramatic and eventful.»
Dagens Næringsliv