Six Years to Sunrise

I was familiar with Catherine Hoff Mount from my patronage of a local Scandanavian shop and was excited to hear about this book.

This is the true account written largely by Catherine, set during WWII. Her parents had already settled in the States in the 1920s, with her father earning a good living in the automotive industry. Then the Great Depression set in, and they decided to return as a family, now with two daughters, to their native Norway to take advantage of the network of family support and so on. The mother and two young girls sailed back to Norway in August of 1939, with the father set to join them in 6 to 8 weeks. Then war erupted, separating this poor family for the duration, until the late autumn of 1945. The book chronicles the
letters exchanged, and details of their time in Norway. The early occupation of the Nazis seeking a strategic military base location made conditions in their part of Norway desperate, and sometimes life-threatening. Instead of being depressing however, this story is a wonderful testament to the loyalty, resilience and family devotion common to the Norwegian people. It helped me appreciate how average and normal people lived one day at a time through one of the most demoralizing periods in human history.


Six Years to Sunrise   August 1, 2000
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

The book was a great tug at my heart. What endurance! It was so touching, gripping, emotional, loving, sad, but the greatest feeling was that it was the real letters from two hearts who loved each other so very much, through such a tough time during the war. We Americans really do not know the full extent of war in our own country. Reading this story gave me a much greater sense of what you people had to go through. To sum it up may I quote the father in his letter "I fell in love with you all over again". I did exactly that with my own husband realizing just how good we have it together. I began to cry after the war story was over, and didn't stop until I finished the book, and then some. This story reminded me of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - Wheel of Live, a memoir of her incredible life that I have read more than twice. Nothing happens without a reason, everthing has a purpose in life. Thank you for sharing this beautiful love story with all of us...I will share it with my Swedish relatives.