January Bokprat: The Wife by Sigrid Undset (online)

Vesterheim hosts a monthly bokprat (book group) where we discuss Scandinavian authors and Scandinavian life. Join us in January for a discussion of The Wife by Sigrid Undset. 

The Wife is the second book in the trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter. Author 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.