A Northern Light in Provence : A Novel

A woman leaves her coastal Greenland village to translate the works of a renowned Provençal poet and finds her life irrevocably changed, in this tender and romantic novel set in a French village.“A charming and beautifully written novel about self-discovery, the power of language, and yes, love!”—Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants“[An] enchanting tale of love and loss in exotic Greenland and sun-dappled Provence . . . [Birkelund] constructs a rich world replete with real emotional stakes and lovely insights on how translation relates to life . . . This sumptuous tale deserves a wide audience.”—Publishers WeeklyIlse Erlund is a translator who lives in a house on stilts along the west coast of Greenland. Isolated and restless in her world by the sea, she convinces her publisher to pay for a trip to the country she has never visited but whose language she speaks fluently: France. Her mission is to translate the verses of Geoffrey “Po” Labaye, a charismatic poet known as “the last l