Accidental Shepherd: How a California Girl Rescued an Ancient Mountain Farm in Norway

In her early 20s, Greensfelder travels to a remote town in Norway to spend a summer working on a farm learning about agricultural practices. She learned Danish as an exchange student in high school but will have to work to understand the local Norwegian dialect. In this mix of coming-of-age and farming memoir, she arrives to find the farm’s owner and sole occupant laid up in the hospital with a long illness. At that first meeting, the farmer gives Greensfelder full authority to act on his behalf for a farm that has been in his family for 10 generations. In the pre-internet age when these events unfold, Greensfelder relies on her neighbors as she manages the land, buildings, and livestock. Over time, she falls in love with the landscape and begins to feel at home in spite of the grueling physical labor and the weighty responsibility she carries for the animals enduring the harsh climate.