Ilse is a French to English/French to Danish translator who still lives in her small Greenland hometown and has never been to France. An opportunity comes Ilse's way to translate a book of poetry into English for her publisher's daughter's wedding because the poet is the groom's father. Two problems; Ilse has never translated poetry and she does not know the Provence dialect. To solve this problem and complete a life goal, she convinces her publisher to pay for her to go to Provence for two weeks with the goal of working directly with the poet. This trip will change her life and help her determine who she is and where she should be.

I loved Ilse as a character. She is older, which is nice, but at the same time very naive and childlike in her experiences of this new place she gets to go. A lot of this comes from her being a woman who has spent her entire life in a small Greenland community. I do like that there is a nice balance between the two settings and you spend equal time with the characters in each area. I will say that I do question how realistic the Greenland scenes are since I do not believe the author is a Greenlander. My one criticism is that it all felt very predictable from the various relationships to her decisions. All that being said if you are looking for an adult women's fiction that is easy to read and might include some locales that are not very familiar this might be for you.

Although you don't need to have traveled to France to appreciate this book, I do think that it made it extra "special" in my heart. I basically wish I could live the life of Ilse in France, isn't that the quintessential "dream" of most creative types? To live in some dreamy, far-off land translating something artsy and classic, surrounded by culture and charm? This book has it all and was like a breath of fresh (French) air. Loved it.

Ilse is a Greenlandic translator who travels to Provence for the first time to work on a project for an aging poet. As someone who fell in love with French as a kid, it was a particularly exciting prospect, especially for the sunny weather. We follow her time with the poet, his friends and family. Essentially, the story is centered around Ilse finding home. Whether that's in the paradise she's been imagining of France or in the icy landscape of Greenland, you'll have to read the book.

Birkelund is definitely a lyrical writer. The prose itself is almost poetry, each description carefully and beautifully crafted. Despite the lovely writing, the narrative itself was a bit uncomfortable for me. It's set up as a romance, and if it was just about falling in love with a location, I would be sold. Unfortunately, it's sorting through romantic feelings regarding a man who could be her father (gross!) followed by a rendezvous with his son, a man who comes off as unkind, mean, and untrustworthy. Throughout the story, she is constantly reiterating how whole she feels in Provence, the place of her dreams. When the poet's son breaks off his wedding and asks her to join him in Paris, she sees to options: staying in Greenland with her high school boyfriend or moving to France to be with Frey. The idea that she could move to Provence without a romantic relationship to live in the place she loved apparently wasn't on the table. It just felt unrealistic and disappointing.

Points for the beautiful writing, but readers should also note that this is best read on a Kindle where you can translate the many things written in French.

A lovely escape. This one read like a quiet exhale—lush setting, gentle introspection, and just the right hint of romance. The slower pace worked for me, though it might not for everyone. A feel-good story with literary depth

I think I might be in a strange kind of reading slump. Not the kind where I can’t bring myself to read (I’m actually reading a lot), but the kind where nothing seems to click. Everything I pick up lately just ends up feeling kind of meh. And I feel bad about it, because I want to connect with these books and I’m just not sure why they’re not landing.

A Northern Light in Provence is a great example. On paper, it seemed like a perfect fit for me! An ode to language, a lush French setting, and a quiet, unconventional “romance” should have swept me away. But instead, I found myself tuning out. The slow pace and ornate language made the reading experience feel more meandering than captivating, with Provence’s lush descriptions offering charm but little narrative weight.

The book sets up Ilse’s (the FMC) transformation as a meaningful arc, but it barely registered for me. What was intended to be a personal awakening felt incomplete, and I remained emotionally detached throughout.

If you’re drawn to quiet, reflective novels that linger on language, setting, and the subtle unfolding of emotion, this story might speak to you in ways it didn’t quite speak to me. I truly hope my strange reading slump lifts soon because I’m missing that feeling of falling head over heels for a book.

Thank you @netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the eARC, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Ilse lives in Greenland and feels lucky that she has a job as a translator. She is offered the opportunity to go to the Provence area of France to meet with a well-known poet and translate his work with him. Ilse believes she speaks French well enough to visit for two weeks. Upon arrival, she is struck by the beauty of the area and how different it is from Greenland. She falls in love with Provence region and becomes very fond of the poet who is several years older than her. The poet asks her to stay longer to complete the translation project. Events begin to unfold drawing Ilse further into the life in France which will have an impact on her view on life as she discovers more about her herself. Some things are different in other places, but in some ways things are the same. While reading A Northern Light in Provence, it felt like I was i Ilse n Greenland or in France. It is beautifully written!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Random House for the opportunity to read and review the ARC of A Northern Light in Provence.

A Northern Light in Provence was such a lovely story about discovery and love. You follow Greenlander Ilse, who is a book translator. She wants more for her life, but not everyone in her life agrees with the way she is living her life. She is in grief, but due to a book she’s currently translating and an opportunity for a new book to translate she asks for what she wants at her job. She gets a chance to go to France to translate for a poet in a dialect that she’s not that familiar with. She falls in love with France and she thinks she falls in love with someone there, but as she returns to Greenland after in extended stay in France. Her life starts to fall apart. She relies on the people closest to her and finds that love may have just been under her nose the whole time.

I absolutely fell in love with this book and I would highly recommend it. I would also recommend the audiobook version because the narrator is perfect and you get to hear the French spoken beautifully. If I was just reading it, the narration wouldn’t have been so pretty in my head. I give this book a solid 4.5 stars and will round up because I can’t give this 4.5 on this platform. The love story in this book doesn’t really come up until much later and it’s not a typically rom-com or romance book where it’s all the plot. This book is about Ilse and what’s going on in her life and in her head.

I received this book via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

While the story is a slow burn and moves a little slowly, it was a great read. A true love letter to books, to the written word.

What a charming, lovely book. Ilse is a translator living in Greenland, struggling to find who she is and how she fits into the world. She translates English, Dutch, and French and is renowned for her ability. However, when a set of poetry in the Provence dialect comes her way, she’s unsure she is up to the task.

Her editor agrees to let her travel to Provence to meet with the poet so she can fully grasp the nuance of the language. There, she falls in word-love (not real love, the poet is 70+) with him, the village, his friends, and France in general.

This story was just delightful. Ilsa was never boring, given her hopes and dreams, and oh to travel to Provence. The story was full of vivid scents and colors, tastes and ambiance. I adored it.

Beautiful setting but it took too long for anything to start happening. The romance felt forced which made it hard to fully enjoy the book. This one just wasn’t for me unfortunately.

While the novel starts strong with its enchanting prose and engaging premise, it falters in the second half. Ilse, a Greenlandic literary translator, travels to Provence to work with Troubadour poet Geoffrey “Po” Labaye on an English translation of his work. The vivid descriptions of Provence and Ilse’s mentor-mentee relationship with Po shine, offering moments of lyrical beauty and personal growth.

However, the story loses momentum with the abrupt introduction of Po’s son, Frey, whose rushed romance with Ilse feels forced and undermines the narrative's focus. (I detest Frey).

Despite its uneven pacing and flawed subplot, the book’s evocative atmosphere and compelling first half make it worth considering, particularly for those who know what it is like to fall in love with your environment.

A Northern Light in Provence is a good story with beautiful writing. I felt like the book transported me to Provence along with Ilse and I liked how the Birkelund included portions of Provencal language throughout. I'd say this book is more literary fiction with some romance, as opposed to strictly romance, but overall I liked the book.

Thank you Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
3.5/5 stars

I am not sure I have ever read a book set in Greenland (if only partially), and that was intriguing to me, and who doesn't dream of getting a job assignment in France? A Northern Light in Provence by Elizabeth Birkelund is a book with warm characters and is a meditation on friendship and self-discovery.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

I adored this unusual story about a woman in Greenland who works as a translator of books. Ilse has always wanted to travel to France to see the settings of the works she translates, she is tired of her life in coastal Greenland, but can not afford the cost.

When an opportunity presents itself to translate a famous old poet in Provence, she embarks upon a life-changing journey of finding her true self (and love) in a marvelous setting, all the more vivid in contrast to her homeland.

I truly enjoyed getting to know more about life in Greenland (cold, cold, cold, a bit bleak) and loved the characters of Ilse's friends and family. I also enjoyed the characters in Provence, and the life lessons of the old poet. The romance wasn't my favorite part but it all played well together, and, like all readers, I am sure, I was in suspense at the end, wondering what path forward Ilse would choose.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an opportunity to read an eARC of this lovely, transformational novel that was published in May of 2024. I hope to read another work by Ms. Birkelund very soon!

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine in exchange for an honest review.

The descriptions of Greenland and Provence were both spectacular and really gave me a feeling of the settings Ilse was in and the moments she was experiencing. However, the relationship between Ilse and the Poet was ick and the relationship between Ilse and Frey was infuriating.

This is a surprisingly charming story set partly in a very small town in Greenland and mostly in provincial France. Isle, the protagonist, lives very remotely on a small island (when the tide is in) off the coast of a small village in Greenland. Although her job as a translator (English, French and Danish) of books furthers her isolation, she manages to walk from her ramshackle house on stilts, which threatens to fall into the sea, across a land bridge when the tide is out to socialize with the village’s unique and eccentric inhabitants. But she dreams of going to France and her wish comes true when her publisher agrees to send her to Provence to translate poetry for an aging man referred to as a “national treasure”. In Province, Isle discovers not only beautiful scenery but also new friendships and even more eccentric and lovable people.
Although this book is listed as being in the romance genre, it is definitely not a rom com and romance is a secondary focus or less. The real story is about friendship, both familiar and well established, and those that can be made with an open mind wherever you find yourself. Isle herself is such a charming character who is already caring but must learn to be brave and open to adventure in unfamiliar surroundings. The author did a terrific job with character development and made all the primary characters so interesting and real. I loved both settings and knew very little about either of these so very different places. The book did move a little slowly at times for me but the real story of friendships and sacrifices made everything come together for a great read!

I did wonder a few times as I was reading this one if I would finish it. It's very much a love letter to a language I don't understand, so there was a sense of missing out over French phrases or passages.

There are authors I've really enjoyed that have been translated to English, and while a part of me understands the undertaking this must be, I've never stopped to consider what the life of a translator might be like. Ilse's love for a language not her own leads her to want to stay true to the original work, to try and lose as little of the author's intention as possible. A translator friend of hers disagrees - she thinks that the translator must make themselves known, not hide behind the original words.

When Ilse's dream of visiting France comes true, at first she worries if she's too unrefined for the experience. A girl left behind by the death of her brother, who has spent her life amongst the harshest of elements in Greenland, who seems to take up too much space for the delicate landscape.

She wasn't expecting her connection with the Poet, who's work she is translating. Not his way of seeing the world, of poetry, and her.

I found myself drawn in by Ilse's transformation but was eager for her to return home. Her experience in Provence was a beautiful dream, and the life she left behind is demanding. Strong willed people, brutal weather and a harsh landscape, there was beauty in her home as well. I felt she would have forever been missing a part of herself if she stayed in Provence, though the pull to that place was very strong as well.

I often think of myself as a character driven reader. It's rare for me to find a place that provides just as strong a character as the people that live in it.

3.5 stars
I loved the settings of Greenland and Provence, but the second section of the book when she was in Provence and translating the poetry was my favorite. There was a lot of sadness in the book, but also hope. I loved how Ilse maturely evaluated the things that happened to her and what she wanted, and she took her time to make her final decisions on where to stay. It took me a little while to get into this book, but ultimately I enjoyed it.

Ballantine eARC
I tried this book a couple times this spring, and it just wasn't working for me, but I didn't want to completely DNF. I am so glad I didn't. I ended up listening to the audio of this, and it hit all the right notes. I loved the setting - both Greenland and France. It is so rare to get a book set in Greenland, and Ilse was such an interesting woman to experience this life and culture because of her love for the French language, even though she's never been. I think what captured me here was how it was a story about an interesting woman's life that left me full of wanting the best for her. It was easy to root for and against some of her decisions. I loved how poetry was explored. The author also examined relationships in interesting and surprising ways. I just fell for this story in ways I didn't expect, and I know it's one that will stick with me.

Ooh, I love me a travel book! I always get jealous thinking of the research the authors are required to do. Because if you set a book in Greenland, you have to go to Greenland. It makes me want to write a book set in Greenland.

I adored this story. It was sweeping in its locales, yet very easy to connect to through the main character. It was thoughtful, moving, and at times I broke out into a huge smile as I read. This is a balm for the soul without being too trite and predictable.