Synopsis:
Callously ravished by the man she hoped to love, an 11th Century Norwegian woman shapes her life around dreams of vengeance.
Review:
Gunnar’s Daughter is an early novel from the Sigrid Undset, author of the Nobel Prize-winning Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, and it is no less of a powerful, shocking work not just for a book set in medieval Norway, but for a book written at the beginning of the 20th Century. Continue reading
Synopsis:
The orphaned daughter of Henry VII’s widow Katherine Parr finds herself at court, ostensibly as a lady-in-waiting but in reality to serve Queen Elizabeth as a white magician.
Review:
The Red Queen’s Daughter is one of the last of the galleys I picked up at Book Expo this year. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction but I was intrigued by the magical aspect to the story. The book has a good balance of historical detail (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived–anybody remember that) alongside a “training” type story as Mary learns to harness the powers inherent within ordinary objects. She does this by considering how an object can be a metaphor or symbol for something else, and the beauty Kolosov gives to the mundane belies her alter ego as a poet.
If you enjoy books like Maria Snyder’s Poison Study series, this is a good one to pick up when it comes out on October 2nd.
Synopsis:
As her seven sons grow to manhood in 13th Century Norway, Kristin finds her marriage tested by long-simmering resentments, and struggles with her passage into senescence.
Review:
This might be my favorite of all three Kristin Lavransdatter books, because I think Undset is operating at the peak of her narrative powers. She really brings to life a time in Kristin’s life that isn’t as readily appealing as Kristin’s passage into womanhood, and the novelty of Kristin and Erlend’s life together has worn off. In that way, reading The Cross is like experiencing a mature marriage, from what I can imagine. It’s no longer new, yet surprises and delight still exist if you have the patience to endure. Continue reading
Synopsis:
Now married to her beloved Erlend Niklausson, Kristin takes up her new life as the mistress of Husaby, fearful that the child that grows inside her will expose her secret shame and cause her father to reject her.
Review:
I didn’t think it was going to be possible for Undset to outdo her achievement The Wreath, book I of her Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy set in Norway in the 14th century. I feared that marriage wouldn’t suit Kristin, that her vitality and inner fire would be quenched by the mundane tasks of childrearing and household economy. But Undset is a wickedly enticing storyteller, and the Kristin that she gives us in The Wife rages with life, and her struggles are even more accessible today than those that young Kristin endured. Continue reading
Synopsis:
Kristin Lavransdatter is a girl in 14th Century Norway, betrothed to one man but desperately in love with another. Continue reading
