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, clinging to the belief that a lie protects better than truth.
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Years later, as a teen, Ulla yearns for belonging and finds refuge and first love with the town’s outcast, Linnea. But when Linnea’s jealousy sparks a reckless betrayal, it sets a tragedy in motion that ends in Ronja’s death.
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Nearly twenty years later, Ulla’s daughter, Analise, falls for Linnea’s son. Their love splits open old wounds, dragging the next generation 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 reveal the truth Ulla was denied, a truth tied to a long-forgotten Swedish Dala Horse and the 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, Hearts on the Line). 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.