Sigrid Undset

From the Nobel Prize-winning author who "should be the next Elena Ferrante” (Slate) comes  a stormy romance set in 14th-century Norway. 

The acknowledged masterpiece of the Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian novelist Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter has never been out of print in this country since its first publication in 1927. Its story of a woman's life in fourteenth-century Norway has kept its hold on generations...

Panorama of Norwegian life in the first half of the 14th century and the tumultous life of a woman, traces Kristin's life from childhood to death.

"The Cross (1922) finds Kristin returning with her husband, Erlend, and their sons to her childhood home, Jorundgaard. As the boys grow older, Kristin is increasingly worried about their prospects, and she and Erlend become estranged. The most devastating and emotional volume in the trilogy, The Cross chronicles the trials and losses Kristin must bear, and how she finds the strength to endure them. This final chapter in her story emphasized the medieval...

"Originally published in Norwegian in 1920 and set in fourteenth-century Norway, The Wreath chronicles the courtship of a headstrong and passionate young woman and a dangerously charming and impetuous man. Undset re-creates the historical backdrop in vivid detail, immersing readers in the day-to-day life, social conventions, and political undercurrents of the period. Her prose combines the sounds and style of Nordic ballads, European courtly poetry,...

The initial volume in the Nobel Prize-winning author's tumultuous, epic story of medieval Norway-- the first new English translation in nearly a century. In the turbulent thirteenth-century Norway of Sigrid Undset's epic masterpiece, bloodlines and loyalties often supersede law, and the crown and the church vie for power and wealth. Vows, the first book in the powerful Olav Audunssøn tetralogy, presents a richly imagined world split between pagan...