RETURN TO THE FUTURE

Sigrid Undset, Nobel prize novelist, tells the story of her own dramatic flight from invaded Norway, through Sweden, by plane to Moscow, by Trans-Siberian to Viadivostok, by boat to Japan and the United States -- a long path to the future. This is not only her personal story, but it is a revealing picture by a trained observer, of conditions wherever fate took her. There is first a peace-loving Norway, wholly unprepared for the uneven battle; then an uneasy Sweden, desiring peace, preparing for war, determined to lend a hand to escaping fellow-Nordics; next the gruelling experience of Soviet Russia, seen at its worst, filthy, unsanitary, victim of totalitarianism, and with no evidence -- save the soldiers themselves -- of any preparations that could withstand German efficiency. Finally Japan, a puzzle to outsiders. Final chapters present her considered conclusions of the future of democracy -- and the challenge.