The Lighthouse and the Stars

Annika Thor, Per Thor , illustrated by Jakob Wegelius

On an island out in the sea, the longing to know the truth is growing inside Blenda – and one stormy autumn night the story catches up with her… Blenda Starry Eyes. That’s what her daddy used to call her. But Blenda and Erik’s father has been gone for seven long years. He might be in America, but no one knows.
Tora, the children’s mother, has given up waiting and hoping. Erik’s memories of his father have also faded, but in Blenda’s shell box the pile of neatly folded letters to her daddy has grown with each passing day.
One day her mother invites people to dinner, and lighthouse-keeper Carl Nordsten comes into Blenda and Erik’s lives. Tora sees him as a man who can provide for the family, a possible stepfather to her children. Blenda sees a bitter, unkind man who can never replace her father. Erik, on the other hand, finds a mentor in Carl, who knows all about the whims of the sea and about all the lenses and mirrors in the lighthouse.
Their time on Little Ejderskär, the island in the sea outside Gothenburg where the lighthouse-keeper lives and works, is testing and full of change for Blenda and Erik. One stormy night a ship founders on the rocks, and four shipwrecked sailors make their way ashore onto the island. Blenda has a feeling she recognises one of the seamen. And the children’s lives change all over again…