New Releases by Sigrid Undset

Powerfully written and filled with magnificent vignettes of the daily life of a medieval estate, The Son Avenger suggests a Greek tragedy whose vision of fate coexists with a Christian sense of suffering and forgiveness. And in the somber, twilight figure of Olav the Bad, Undset has created an antihero as moving as Oedipus or King Lear.

A Scandinavian classic by the recipient of the 1928 Nobel Prize for Literature. The trilogy provides a dynastic account of life in a medieval community. Kristin is a daughter of the Dark Ages and the time when faith in the old gods has receded in the wake of the new religion, Christianity.

Set in medieval Norway, The Snake Pit follows Olav and Ingunn, who, though raised as brother sister, have become lovers in a world caught between the fading sphere of pagan worship and vendettas and the expansion of Christianity.

In Kristin Lavransdatter (1920-1922), Sigrid Undset interweaves political, social, and religious history with the daily aspects of family life to create a colorful, richly detailed tapestry of Norway during the fourteenth-century. The trilogy, however, is more than a journey into the past. Undset''s own life-her familiarity with Norse sagas and folklore and with a wide range of medieval literature, her experiences as a daughter, wife, and mother, and her deep religious faith-profoundly influenced her writing. Her grasp of the connections between past and present and of human nature itself, combined with the extraordinary quality of her writing, sets her works far above the genre of "historical novels." This new translation by Tina Nunnally-the first English version since Charles Archer''s translation in the 1920s-captures Undset''s strengths as a stylist. Nunnally, an award-winning translator, retains the natural dialog and lyrical flow of the original Norwegian, with its echoes of Old Norse legends, while deftly avoiding the stilted language and false archaisms of Archer''s translation. In addition, she restores key passages left out of that edition. Undset''s ability to present a meticulously accurate historical portrait without sacrificing the poetry and narrative drive of masterful storytelling was particularly significant in her homeland. Granted independence in 1905 after five hundred years of foreign domination, Norway was eager to reclaim its national history and culture. Kristin Lavransdatter became a touchstone for Undset''s contemporaries, and continues to be widely read by Norwegians today. In the more than 75 years since it was first published, it has also become a favorite throughout the world.

The story of Fru Hjelde, an actress who abandons in a burst of passion her successful career and marries a man with whom she had little in common. After the passing of ten years, Uni—as Fru Hjelde is called—finds that her husband and five children have become, not an impetus, but rather an intractable obstacle to a life of fulfillment. Eager for diversion, Uni finds the opportunity to expand her world after a chance encounter with a charming acquaintance from her past.

Sigurd falls in love with a young girl after sixteen years of happy Norwegian family life.

Set in the early 1900s, Paul Selmer is a hero who struggles as a convert to Catholicism, a minority sect in Norway. He struggles in his unhappy marriage to love his difficult wife and accept his faults as a husband. He struggles to maintain friendships and family ties in a time of rapidly crumbling morals and the obvious devastation caused by divorce and infidelity. He struggles as a parent to raise his children in a faith he is also learning.--Publisher''s description.

Med en kulturhistorisk skildring af Norge i det 14. århundrede som baggrund fortælles om den karakterstærke, selvrådige Kristin, der efter et liv som hustru og moder til sidst lærer at gå forsagelsens vej