The Nativity Thief: Book 1 of The Woodmaster by Anna Severson

Historical Fiction: A story of redemption

Sweden, December of 1852

Fourteen-year-old Tor Neeson, the village trouble-maker, steals a master carpenter's priceless Nativity to save his sister's life, but a reversal of fortune leaves him more destitute and desperate than ever. To his frustration, he soon finds himself indentured to the very man he wronged.

In his angry struggle to free himself from the control of the inflexible Herr Andersson and the censure of other disapproving villagers, Tore blinds himself to the knowledge that all that stands between him and complete ruin is his most feared and hated enemy: the woodmaster.