Shadow on the Mountain

Shadow on the Mountain is a 2011 novel for middle grades by Margi Preus that considers what an adolescent’s life would have been like in the shadow of Nazi occupation in the northern European country of Norway. Basing her narrative on the experiences of the real-life teenager Erling Storrusten, Preus imagines a world of confusing choices, dangerous missions, and resistance in the face of an extraordinarily powerful enemy. Although the novel tones down some of the realities of war, occupation, and Nazi ideology to make the book accessible to a young audience, Shadow on the Mountain lays out some of the ways collaboration with the Nazis became an acceptable option for many, and the ways in which many people fought back against this detestable worldview.

The novel opens with a prologue that explains how on April 19, 1940, Denmark and Norway were invaded by Hitler’s forces with the assumption that the blond, blue-eyed population would be the perfect Aryans to become the master race. Norway’s small population and weak army were no match for German troops, and the Nazi regime set up a puppet government under Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian Nazi leader. Slowly, as the occupation strengthened, so did the Norwegian resistance movement.

The book’s narrative begins five months after the initial invasion and is told from the point of view of 14-year-old Espen, a boy growing up in the fictional village of Lilleby. When the Nazis start to repress the local population and Espen realizes that his way of life is gone for good, he decides to work against this enemy alongside his younger sister Ingrid.



Not everyone’s reaction is to resist the Nazis. Askel, a mean-tempered and disliked member of Espen’s old soccer team, takes the opportunity to work for the Germans in order to rise in status and get power over other people. Not only that, but the beliefs of the Nazis really appeal to this young man. Suspecting that Espen is working against the occupiers, Askel makes it his mission to catch the protagonist in the act.

Espen’s first mission is to deliver a coded message while pretending to ride his bike around town. When he is stopped and his bag is searched by Nazi soldiers, Espen thinks he sees his best friend Kjell in their car. When he successfully gets away from the patrol and brings the message to the Norwegian Resistance, he is given the nickname “Odin” and assigned regular courier duties.

When Espen asks Kjell about being in the car, Kjell denies everything. But still, Espen can’t help but notice that Kjell seems to agree with some of what the Nazis are saying. Moreover, Kjell’s grandmother has no trouble getting her medicine, even when other people are struggling because of delivery shortfalls. Is it possible that Kjell is a collaborator just like Askel?



Over the next five years, Espen rises through the ranks of the Resistance, his assignments grow in danger and difficulty until he is executing spy maneuvers. At the same time, he worries about the increasing involvement of his sister who has been keeping an illegal diary about the invasion, as well as stealing ration cards to feed German prisoners who are on a starvation diet. During this time we learn that Kjell has been completely subsumed into Nazi beliefs and is working for them as a spy. Still, whenever their investigations get close enough to catch Espen, Kjell warns his former best friend in order to save his life.

Espen matures in his attitude toward the Nazis. Instead of feeling daily rage and hate – emotions that fuel Nazi ideology and could undermine his work – he practices moving away from these feelings in order to protect his mind from the influence of propaganda.

In his free moments, Espen starts a relationship with Solveig, a neighbor who has also been helping with resistance activities. This romantic interlude helps lighten some of the otherwise extremely tense and scary situations the novel describes.



As the war is reaching its climactic last year, the Nazi grip on Norway tightens and the Germans attempt to crush all of the Resistance movement once and for all. Just as Espen completes his final and most dangerous mission – smuggling the blueprints of a German compound – his team is compromised and about to be caught. Espen knows that the person they really want to capture is him, so if he wants to save the lives of his sister, his girlfriend, and everyone in the Resistance movement, he must make the potentially fatal decision to cross over the mountains to Sweden.

The novel ends very abruptly with Espen in Sweden. Instead of continuing the story of the fictional character and imagining what could have happened to him and his family after the war, Preus now switches gears into pure historical mode. The epilogue is an author’s note that explains how much of the novel is pure fiction, and how much is based on the facts of Erling Storrusten’s actual life. She then goes on to recount what happened to Erling after the war and includes some photographs, a timeline, a map, and suggestions for further reading for those who would like to explore this period of history further.