A Norwegian Christmas in Sandnes

<p>After missing her father's death by seventeen minutes Astrid Johansen spends a year avoiding grief in Oslo-building a career performing independence and convincing herself that distance is the same as healing.</p><p>Now it's Christmas and her mother's color-coded schedule for surviving the holidays without Magnus demands Astrid's return to Sandnes. Twelve days. That's all she's committed to.</p><p>But Sandnes has changed. Her brother is about to become a father. Her mother survives through scheduled crying times and relentless organization. And the family traditions Astrid once escaped now feel fragile precious and impossible to ignore.</p><p>As Christmas stretches into January and beyond Astrid faces a choice she's spent five years avoiding: return to the life she built in Oslo or admit that independence was really just another form of running.</p><p><em>A Norwegian Christmas in Sandnes</em> is a quietly powerful novel about grief that doesn't end families that endure and the courage it takes to come home-not because you have to but because you choose to.</p>