Spanning five decades and three generations, The Dala Horse’s Daughters traces the cost of secrecy, the long shadow of first love, and one woman’s desperate bid for redemption.
In 1970s rural Minnesota, Ronja, a former Swedish con artist, is determined to raise her daughter, Ulla, far from the life she fled—but the past she escaped refuses to let go.
Years later, Ulla, hungry for truth and belonging, finds refuge—and first love—with the town’s outcast, Linnea, until Linnea’s single act of jealousy and betrayal shatters their lives and sets tragedy in motion.
Nearly two decades on, Ulla’s daughter, Analise, begins to question the weight of an inherited silence when she falls for Linnea’s son. As old wounds reopen, the next generation is pulled into a legacy of secrecy and lies.
Now terminally ill and running out of time, Linnea is determined to reckon with the irrevocable consequences of her actions decades earlier. Her only hope for atonement is to give Ulla the truth she was denied—a truth that begins with a long-forgotten object: a Swedish Dala horse bound to a past Ronja fought to bury.
What Linnea uncovers will bind the two families in ways none of them could have imagined, forcing them to confront whether love can survive betrayal—and whether forgiveness can ever be earned.
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Becca Baisch is the author of The Dala Horse’s Daughters, her debut women’s fiction novel, available everywhere November 1st, 2026, and a forthcoming contemporary series centered on a hockey-driven family (Cut to the Heart, The Edge of Us, When She Leaves). A proud Minnesota native, she has lived in California, Guadalajara, New York City, and Milwaukee, and now calls Minneapolis home, where she and her partner co-manage life with their four children. When she’s not writing—or drinking far too much coffee—she enjoys the challenge of running year-round in Minnesota weather and paddleboarding the city’s lakes.