The Dark Light

by Mette Newth, Faith Ingwersen (Translator)

When it was discovered that thirteen-year-old Tora has leprosy, she is sent from her family's remote mountain farm to the leprosy hospital in the bustling port of Bergen. In early-nineteenth-century Norway, lepers are quarantined in this hospital and no longer considered among the living. But even as her body gradually fails her, Tora's new life blossoms. She finds strength through helping her fellow patients, both young and old, and she decides to see for herself what the Bible says about leprosy. To do so, she must make friends with the young and angry Mistress Dybendal, the only person at the hospital who can teach her to read.

As she did in The Abduction (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year), Mette Newth brings another era vividly to life and demonstrates the timeless nature of the search for identity and tolerance.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Historical, Illness

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Mette Cecilie Newth is a Norwegian illustrator, author of children's literature, and organizer. She received the Norwegian Critics Prize for Best children's book.

Reviews

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book. It is stunning and beautifully written and I plan on finding and reading every single book that Sunniva mentioned in the entire thing. There are so many exellent quotes in this book, but I don't want to spoil anything for potential readers. Actually, I am surprised that this many people have read this book at all (in a totally good way of course). I highly recomend it unless you cannot handle grousome discriptions with incredible detail, especially to one who sees the stories of books like watching a movie but with the added benifit of thoughts and emotions.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully bittersweet book of light, dark and ultimately unfailing book that deserves a lot more recognition than it gets.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

saddest book i ever read. i cried at the end and found hope through it as well. the way this book is translated, the prose...so beautiful. there are many quotes in here that mean so much to me.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it was written first, this book will remind a lot of people of Moloka'i, because the subject is so similar. The setting, the writing, and the nuances are all very different, and although the plot has understandable similarities, it is a very different book.

Even in translation, Newth's writing is rich and lyrical. Her characters are honest and realistic, and the book addresses some very interesting questions.

Unlike a lot of contemporary YA, this is not a plot-driven novel. It wanders at its own pace, asking questions and exploring the answers. Although the book is not fast paced, it is still engaging.

My reaction followed a similar course, and I spent a few days mulling things over and discussing it with others before I sat down to rate it and write my review. The longer I thought about it, and the more I talked about it, the more I found I liked it. This had a lot to do with the ending:

I appreciate the fact that the book ends with Tora's death. As a leper in the 1800s, this is inevitable, and I'm glad that Newth didn't try to skirt the issue for a happy ending. I also really like that the book still has a happy ending even though it ends with death. I think the message of spirituality and the questions around God's will were handled well, and the hope of Tora's spiritual exploration lifts the ending out of the very dark place it could have been.

However, there was one thing about the book's end that really didn't sit well with me. I could be mistaken, but I interpreted the euphemistic description as Tora (with her father's help) choosing to end her own life. Given the circumstances, this is an understandable decision, but I did not think it was addressed directly enough to convey a clear message. As a book targeted to young adult audiences, I worry about a book (perhaps inadvertently) glorifying suicide without addressing the negatives.

Moreover, I got the impression that the younger girl also chose to end her life? She was poor, starving, and had just lost her sister, but she did not have a debilitating and terminal disease! This bothers me quite a bit. It sends the message that when life is difficult, you should just give up, instead of looking to the future and hoping that things turn around. Who's to say the war wouldn't end in a year, and this young girl could go on to live a happy and prosperous life? Teen suicide is a real problem, and I feel like the book paints a one-sided and overly rosy picture of a young person taking her own life.

[Oliver McMahon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The approach of this book is completely unlike anything I ever read, and hooked me from the first page due to a personal fascination with death that surpasses a majority of the people I've known -- it's a compulsive and haunting thought for me and, for Tora Tveiten, it is a promise that she must face at the tender age of thirteen-years-old.

There is no ultimate conflict. There is no 'enemy to overcome'. There is only the diagnosis of leprosy and the toll of the death bell in the back of the mind of every soul sent to Bergen to die, unknown. When I first realized this, I nearly balked, wondering where hope or happiness could be found in a book so dreary and cruelly honest about the nature of disease, the things that we as living beings shy away from on instinct. Yet above all else, there did rise a true hero: Compassion.

On a technical level, the book was lovely. Well-written and easily graspable without demanding the reader have a large vocabulary. The character dialogue occasionally lacked distinctive voices, likely due to the translation from Norwegian to English. My favourite literary choice of the author involved the way that no details were given for the sole sake of exposition -- each detail came in its own time with no pushing or shoving. While the story's resolution initially took a bit to understand, the circuitous choice on behalf of the author was spot-on, leading to a satisfying ending that could not have been more poignant.

[Morgan Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mette Newth's "The Dark Light" is an amazing book. It's main focus is on a young girl, Tora, who has leprosy and takes place in St. Jorgen's Hospital in Norway, although, it often flashes back to her life back at home. She is the youngest of her brothers and sisters and had become best friends with the neighboring farm's youngest boy. They become very close due to their bossy older siblings. At the hospital Tora focuses on helping other leprosy ridden patients and grows to wonder what the bible says about her condition. To do so, she must befriend the mean and angry Mistress Dybendal, the only person in the hospital who can read.

Also, this book was translated from Norwegian so there are a few mistakes but they are easily understandable.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving story about an unusual time, place and situation. In early 19th-century Norway, a young girl, Tora, is discovered to have leprosy. She is confined to a leprosy "hospital" although there is no treatment for leprosy. In trying to find some meaning in her disease, she befriends another patient, the wealthy and angry Mistress Dybendal, in order to learn to read and find answers. The answers she finds are spiritual, although not necessarily religious. Recommended for gr. 7-12.

[Reetta Saine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tämä kirja kulkee aika hyvin ilman nostoakin, mutta sopii hyvin vinkkauksiin. Leprasairaalaan saapuva nuori tyttö käy läpi elämäänsä, pohtii kuolemaa, näkee kipua ja sairautta, uppoaa uskontoon ja toisten auttamiseen ja löytää lopulta helpotusta ystävyydestä, kirjallisuudesta ja kuolemasta.

Romaani pohjautuu tositapahtumiin Bergenin historiassa, ja pienellä vaivalla tähän saa yhdistettyä kotimaisen Seilin saaren. Surua ja kauneutta ja iloakin.

Ehdoton suositus.

[Chloe Faulkner · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is not often that I read a book that touches me quite like The Dark Light did. I didn't want to finish it on the bus because I felt I really needed to sit down in a comfortable spot and give myself the peace to finish one of the most amazing books I have ever read. This book questions God, religion, our treatment of others, life, death etc.

In one word this book is just perfect.

[Trevor Oakley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dunno why, but I love PLAGUE / PESTILENCE books -- this is a really graphic and accurate account of life in a danish leper colony.

[Danielle Perales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cast out, trapped. Tora brings light into her fellow lepers lives. Now there is reason to live.

[Lourdes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this with a heavy-heart - which I believe is the only way to do it - for it is such a bittersweet book; the protagonist, despite living a life that would be perceived as hopeless by many - if not everybody - manages to find beauty; and does this by reading as she questions death and religion.
Such a heart wrenching book, indeed a beautifully written one: it deserves more recognition.

Side note, but as someone who is very fond of art, especially when it comes to Edvard Munch’s artwork, I must emphasize that the cover choice is not a mere accident or just for the sake of being aesthetically pleasing: the cover is a detail of The Sick Child by Munch (which has different versions but these one in particular is a lithograph). The sick girl portrayed resembles Munch’s sister, Sophie, who died from tuberculosis at an early age (one of the Norwegian painter’s most repeated motifs).

Finally, I have found a new favourite book

[Mariele · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too gloomy for children, too flat for adult readers.

[Jenny in Neverland · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Nelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oon jo vuosia yrittänyt etsiä tän kirjan nimeä ja vihdoin löysin sen. Muistan kun pieni 5-luokkalainen Nelli luki tämän ja sen maailma vaan vaihto raiteitaan. Pakko vielä joku päivä lukea uudelleen ja verestää muistoja.

[GreenMother · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is book is so powerful, it got me into reading in middle school. I checked it out from the school library and to this day it still makes me feel.

[Miss Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

gr 9+ 244pgs


1800s, Norway. 13 year old Tora is the living dead. Tora has leprosy and is sent from her rural farming community to the leprosy hospital in Bergen. At first fearful of the other patients, Tora learns to accept her fate and even finds "light" in the darkness that surrounds her.

A bit gruesome in some parts (definitely grade 9+), but it was interesting to watch as Tora gradually became a leader in their community.

[Michelle White]

This book would be good for student's to read. I think they would enjoy it. I could bearly put it down. I had never read a book on leprosy, let alone from the point of view of a child. I got it from the IUS Library.

[Mell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad historical fiction about a girl with leprosy.

[Gigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because I have so much compassion, this book left me with a heavy heart.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartwrenching.