The Half Brother revolves around the life of a family spanning five generations in the 20th century. The book opens in Berlin in 1990, at the film festival, as the Berlin wall is still coming down. It ends in Oslo the day after. But the story begins with Vera, Barnum's mother, on V Day, 1945. At a local level the story is about the half brothers Barnum and Fred growing up together in Oslo; Barnum with his father, Fred searching for his. At a universal level, the story is about Europe after world war II, a continent split in half, which shall become one again. And that too is the quest of this epic: To see two halves become a whole. The narrative chosen for the quest is that of a mystery: Who is the father? As the story progresses, we will realize that it is not just the identity of one father we are looking for.