EAST

East
By Edith Pattou
Harcourt, Inc., 2003. 498 pgs. Young Adult Fiction

A gentle mapmaker from Njord falls in love with a superstitious woman who wants to have a child for all the compass points and Rose is born. Rose is the youngest of seven children, meant as a replacement for her dead older sister Elise. Elise was an almost perfect child, an east born. At the very beginning of the novel Rose’s father remembers “Ebba Rose was the name of our last-born child. Except it was a lie…” This lie forms the basis of the plot and through the unraveling of it Pattou emphasizes the need to know who you are and where you come from. The beautiful retelling of the Norwegian folktale, “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”, is a story about discovering true identity. All her young life Rose believes she is an east born, not a north born. Yet she is a wandering child – she will not stay still as a proper east born would. Once as a child she gets in trouble and is rescued by a great white bear. Only Rose and her dearest brother Neddy suspect the rescuer is more than an isbjorn, an ice bear. When Rose is a young woman the bear returns. In exchange for Rose he will help her family defy poverty and death. In return, Rose must unwittingly discover the true identity and destiny of the white bear.


The result is a rich epic fantasy. The multi-directional perspective and symmetry of the compass is mirrored in the multi-voiced narrative. The icy northern lands are a perfect setting for the hardships of Rose’s family and the intrigue of the romance between Rose and her bear. Rose is a lovely character who enchants everyone she comes into contact with – just as a fairy tale heroine should. And yet as Rose grows to understand her true identity and real opponent, she becomes a fierce force who will stop at nothing to reclaim her true love.