Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

"Accidential Shepherd" isn't your typical travelogue. It's a quirky, insightful journey into the unexpected – a Californian woman trading the sun-drenched coast for the rugged beauty of a forgotten Norwegian mountain farm. Greensfelder, armed with more enthusiasm than farming knowledge, embarks on a hilarious and heartwarming adventure, navigating cultural clashes, grappling with stubborn goats, and discovering a profound connection to the land and its history.

This isn't just a story of rural life; it's a meditation on identity, belonging, and the enduring power of human connection. Greensfelder's wry humor and self-deprecating wit shine through, making the reader feel like they're right alongside her, mud-splattered and bewildered, yet utterly captivated by the magic of this off-the-grid existence.

Liese Greensfelder’s memoir was a joy to read. She did an excellent job pulling readers into the arduous occupation of traditional farming. This book covers the year-long life cycle of a farm in rural Norway, sparing no detail in describing the lifecycle of the farm’s animals. I found myself getting emotional in a way that I did not expect multiple times throughout this memoir. I really connected with Liese’s love for the animals in her care, and the kindness she shared with her rural community.

At times this book is infuriating as Liese is met with numerous hurdles – many of which stem from the farm’s patriarchal owner. Her grit is admirable, and it is easy to be a champion for her story. I think this memoir should be required reading for anyone considering a farmstay abroad.

A huge thank you to NetGalley University of Minnesota Press for providing me with an ARC. I am very excited for this book to find its audience!

Today’s review is brought to you by University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley. Accidental Shepherd is the story of Liese Greenfelder goes to Norway to assist on a sheep farm for the summer. The owner had a stroke and is unable to care for himself, let alone his farm. Liese agrees to step in and gets a crash course in agrarian life.

She goes into detail about the labors of farm life. Lambing, weeding the garden, the heifer’s first heat, filling the silo, milking the cow, the particular style of haying this community does. She doesn’t spare any of the gory but important details.

Aiding a sheep in labor when a lamb gets stuck, dealing with sick and dead animals, assisting the butcher with the young rams that became meat, her emotional attachment to the cow in her care sent to slaughter. As a meat eater, it’s good to be reminded where our food comes from.

Animal husbandry requires a balance between caring about the animals but also being practical about profits for your business. A farmer I saw on TikTok said he abides by the ‘one bad day’ rule. The animals in his care will be well cared for until their one bad day when they’re sent to become meat. From my indoorsy perspective, this seems like the best way to have that balance of caring without burning out.

Overall, the narrative has a cozy, relaxed pace. We seen Liese bond with her neighbors and find her footing as a farmer. If you’ve ever been curious about an agrarian life, this is a great peek into it.

Because the community is so rural and insular and the farm work so all encompassing, it’s easy to forget this was 50 years ago. Greenfelder’s attention to detail makes this feel like a recent recollection rather than a vividly remembered part of her youth.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with this book. Animal husbandry sounds fun but too many people forget the messy reality. This memoir has all sides. 4/5

It's 1972 and Liese, who is 20 years old and living in California, applies to a program through which young people can work on a farm in Norway. When she arrives, she learns that the farmer, Johannes, has had a stroke. He asks her to take over farm duties for a few weeks while he recuperates, even though she only has a rudimentary knowledge of the language and has never worked on a farm. The neighbors are kind and helpful to Liese, but they have been disrespected by Johannes for years. He is more disabled than he is willing to admit, and Liese's time on the farm keeps being extended. This book provides a fascinating look at Norwegian rural agriculture, and a heartfelt account of a young woman's remarkable once-in-a-lifetime experience. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this advance copy.

"Not so long ago, I would have had a good laugh on learning that people of a mountainous country five thousand miles from my home had invented a word for 'stuck on a mountain ledge.' If I'd been told that I would soon be scrabbling up a boulder-strewn peak in that very country to rescue animals in just such a predicament, I'd have shaken my head in disbelief, for I knew almost nothing about Norway and I'd never touched a sheep in my life." (loc. 60)

In 1972, without experience determined to make a living out of working with small farms in developing countries, Greensfelder arrived in Norway to spend a few months gaining that initial experience. She expected to do a fair amount of scutwork, but the farm was small (run by a single farmer), so she figured she'd get to do a wider variety of tasks than if she worked on a large, commercial property.

She wasn't wrong: The day she arrived, she learned that the farmer had suffered a serious stroke and would be in hospital for at least a month. There were animals to care for and weeding to be done—and nobody else to take responsibility. Could she run the farm until his health improved?

Greensfelder didn't have a farming background. She didn't speak Norwegian—let alone the rural dialect spoken in Øystese. But she *did* speak Danish, thanks to a high-school year spent abroad, and neither she nor the neighbors wanted to see the farm fail. And so she agreed to stay on for a month, which became three months, which became a year, and learn on the fly, under the patient tutelage of the local community.

"Deeper down, I realized that at Hovland I was a blank slate, judged by the work I was doing and my interactions with neighbors over these past few weeks. No one could fault me for whatever errors I'd committed in the past. Instead, my neighbors were supporting, helping, and instructing me, because no one wanted Johannes's farm—or the new girl who was running it—to fail." (loc. 998)

I tempered my expectations for "Accidental Shepherd", simply because it can be hard to write about an experience that happened decades ago—too often writers end up with a list of things that happened rather than a fleshed-out set of scenes and themes. But this was an unexpected gem: Greensfelder remembers her experience vividly, and it ends up being so complete a story. Maybe if she'd known when she arrived what she was in for, she would have turned and run (but then—maybe not), but my gosh, how much she was able to learn and accomplish in a year.

The heroes of the story are the neighbors, who wanted to see Greensfelder succeed: in the early days, they came by daily to set Greensfelder up for the day's work and to help her complete the tasks she could not yet do on her own; as time went on and Greensfelder both held her own and became better able to communicate in their Norwegian dialect, they folded her into their community. While I imagine that some of the rough edges of the story have been smoothed by time, her appreciation and the mutual respect she developed with the locals sings through loud and clear.

I'll be looking for copies for my mother and my aunt when this is published. Recommended for memoir lovers and people curious about odd adventures and people who dream of running away to Norway and people who like armchair-farming.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

An interesting book detailing Greensfelder's year of shepherding. Her descriptions of her year are very visual and it is easy to see while the setting is so beautiful and the job interesting, shepherding is not for the faint of heart. Although not yet 21 years old, she took over an entire herd of sheep and the upkeep of the farm. I truly enjoyed hearing about the day to day duties that must have been exhausting and the interactions with her very generous neighbors. There are descriptions of the harsh realities of shepherding lambs for food. so be aware. Overall a good read and very amazing true story..

very interesting autobiography about an interesting person. would recommend this work. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

I love the title of this book! It describes exactly what Liese became when she bit off more than she could chew and ended up running a farm and tending sheep by herself for one unintended year. Yes, she had help from kind and confident neighbors, many who became lifelong friends, but the ultimate burden of keeping the animals alive and the farm running fell on her shoulders. This is an autobiographical look at one year in the author’s life and is told with much skill and candor, extolling the joys, while also sharing the stress and difficulties she faced. I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable and educational read and would highly recommend it to anyone who would like to take a peek into a life that is foreign to most of us. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy this book.