The Second Winter A Novel

WINNER – National Indie Excellence Award 2017 for Literary Fiction
BRONZE WINNER – Foreword INDIES 2016, War & Military
HONORABLE MENTION – San Francisco Book Festival 2017, General Fiction

“A great historical novel, a touching family saga, and a noir wartime thriller all rolled into one terrific narrative.” —Lee Child, New York Times best-selling author

Set in Denmark in the darkest days of World War II, The Second Winter is a cinematic novel that, in its vivid portrayal of a family struggling to survive the German occupation, captures a savage moment in history and exposes the violence and want inherent in a father's love.

It is 1941. In occupied Denmark, an uneasy relationship between the Danish government and the Germans allows the country to function under the protection of Hitler's army, while Danish resistance fighters wage a bloody, covert battle against the Nazis. Fredrik Gregersen, a brutish, tormented caretaker of a small farm in Jutland laboring to keep his son and daughter fed, profits from helping Jewish fugitives cross the border into Sweden. Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, Polina, a young refugee from Krakow, finds herself impressed into prostitution by Germans and Danes alike. When Fredrik steals a precious necklace from a helpless family of Jews, his own family's fate becomes intertwined with Polina's, triggering a ripple effect that will take decades and the fall of the Berlin Wall to culminate.

Craig Larsen was born in 1963 and is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and Columbia Law School. His first novel, Mania, was published in 2009. A single father, Larsen has lived in New York and Europe. He currently resides in Northern California.