Tora is a thirteen year old girl who is dying of leprosy; she resides in Norway during the Napoleonic Wars. Throughout the novel, the author (Mette Newth) utilizes light imagery to foretell the events of the story. The title, "The Dark Light," is a blatent contradiction. Tora's life is also a contradiction. Although she leads a life that would be perceived as hopeless by many, she manages to find success and beauty. The success comes from her mastery of reading, and the beauty comes from the friendships that she cherishes as she resides within the horrid conditions of St. Jorgen's hospital. There, she cares for other lepers in order to pay for her stay. Tora finds her spiritual answers toward the final point of her death as the spirits of her mother and her two best friends answer her question "Does God exist?" They inform Tora that man creates his own gods; the answers of life lies within each of us.

I thought this book was awesome. You never wanted to put it down. Although it was a bit depressing, it turns out okay. Here is my summary of it:
She saw nothing but death. Death: a thick black fog over all her other thoughts. When 13 year old Tora found out she had leprosy, her life shattered before her. She was forced to leave her freinds, family, and home, to travel to St. Jorgen's hospital in Bergen, Norway. The leprosy hostpital: place of the livng dead. To outsiders, lepers were horrible, unclean people, so the lepers got little from the public. As Tora's body begins to fail her, however, she finds a new life within books.

This girl is just my age and i couldnt imagine being in her position. This book made me appreciate life and every day i get to live with great health. I hope more people will read this and feel the same.

As an individual who has worked in the field , I can say without equivocation that this book captures not only the disease but the stigma that still accompanies it, despite the fact that Hansen's Disease can be treated and cured . In America we had places like Molaki and Carville where we once banished our sick suffers of Hansen's Disease. This story could have been one of our own forced into a pitiless exile in the 1800s and early 1900s. This story ,however, captures fully the resiliance of the human spirit and the humanity of some of their caretakers. I am recommending this book to everyone I know for the graceful prose and beautiful depth of knowledge of the human heart.

This book is very good. I got it as a recommendation from my librarian and it was interesting. It reminds me of "Dogsong" by Gary Paulson. It has a great prt but is written in a style I am not used to and it was confusing for me. If you liked "Dogsong" give this book a look. (Hey! I rhymed!)

The Abduction, by Mette Newth is one of those enigmatic, strangely intriguing books. Almost. The book is told by two different people: Osuqo, an Indian girl in third person, and Christine a white girl in first person.The author's portrayl of Osuqo as a confused, hurt, and virginal girl, and his telling of her disgusting gang-rape is extremely effective. However his characterization of Christine falls very short. Christine is too one-dimensionally good: the voice of unquestioned reason in a world of ignorant white people. Christine never once questions the foreigners humanity, even after growing up in an environment of intolerance for non-whites. This is extremely unrealistic. Even after Christine learns that Osuqo accidently killed her (Christine's) father, (another 'good white' unconditionally loving Osuqo), she does not doubt the foreigners. She shows very little anger, or even resentment. Christine is obviously a very understanding girl, but who would be this perfect having grown up taught all non-white Christians are sub-human, (even raised by a third tolerant mother). I think the book would have been much more effective had Christine originally hated the Indians, then GROWN to accept them as human beings. Also, although Osuqo is superbly portrayed as distrustful towards whites, it is a bit unreal to believe that after being attacked by about atleast 10 sailors she would not be scared of them at all- only angry. If the authors message is that tolerance overcomes intolerance,then he should have at least centered the story around a few realistically initially-intolerant Europeans, and focused the story on their gradual acceptance of the Indians. All in all, 50 % compelling story, well-developed foreigners, but too one-dimensional ''heroine.'' Read the book from Osuqo's point of view, and add your own dimension to Christine- it isn't there in the book.

Mette Newth did an awesome job when writing from the perspective of Osuqo using metaphors and similes to compare her thoughts to landmarks and beliefs of her land. I could see how Christine was caught in the middle of the situation and how she struggled to make the right decisions. This novel gave me a harsh view of how foreigners were treated and the cruelty that Osuqo and Poq had to face just because they were misunderstood.