Kristin Lavransdatter

Exploring Oslo this summer, we stumbled upon an intriguing statue of Sigrid Undset, a Nobel Laureate in Literature. Her epic family trilogy of medieval Norway has never been out of print.

I began reading it on our flight back to the States. The flight flew by. The book casts a spell, transporting the reader back in time. Undset weaves a vivid tapestry of Medieval Norway as she tells the story. The historical detail is specific and beautifully realized but never reads like “research,” which I admired as a novelist as well as a reader. The characters’ circumstances are determined by… show more.

When I discovered Kristin Lavransdatter was 1000 pages, I never expected to fininsh it (I'm a slow reader). However, about 50 pages into it, I was hooked and was at a loss when I read the final chapter. Religion is pervasive but delivered indirectly. The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages was an absolute authority with an iron grip on the main character Kristin. Undset was not judgmental in the book, but I was in reading it. 

This is an older book, and as such the tone and style of it might be a chore to some of the more modern readers – but Undsett is a Nobel Prize winner in Literature for a reason, and for me, the rich historical setting of the Norway of Middle Ages and Kristin herself, the eponymous heroine of the novel, are more than enough. I first read this book when I was very young and it had a deep impact on me even then – and I’ve returned for occasional re-reads in the years that followed that first encounter, finding… show more.