Narrative Non-fiction · Hardback

Mother's Choice

Norwegian title: Mors valg

Bjørn Westlie

In the summer of 1940, 16-year-old Agnes befriended Ruth Maier, a Jewish refugee four-year-older than her. Agnes grew up in a resistance family and later learned that Ruth had been arrested by the Nazis. Yet, in 1944, Agnes made a choice that would haunt her family for decades—she married a Nazi. It’s a decision her son, journalist and historian Bjørn Westlie, has struggled to understand ever since.

For some Norwegians, peace never truly arrived in 1945. That’s when the punishment began. In Mother’s Choice, Westlie explores how the Germany's Nazi occupation of Norway shaped his mother’s life, and the lives of those around her, long after the war ended. Memories of shame, guilt, betrayal and loneliness are told through the eyes of a son trying to care for his mother and make sense of a difficult childhood. Step by step, Westlie uncovers his mother's harrowing life story, the consequences of the choices she made—and the ones made for her by others.

Mother’s Choice is a standalone sequel to Father’s War (Aschehoug), which won the prestigious Brage Prize in 2008. Bjørn Westlie (b. 1949) is a Norwegian journalist, author, and historian with a PhD. He has written several critically acclaimed books on World War II.