A fine conclusion to an eminently readable classic of modernist historical fiction.
Nobel Prize–winning Norwegian author Undset brings her tetralogy of medieval life to a resounding, memorable, and death-haunted close.
Though she is best known for her 1920 trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter, Undset’s most ambitious work may be her Olav Audunssøn series (1925–27), set in a time when Norway was transforming from a land of Viking war chiefs and blood vendettas to a Christian monarchy based on law. At the opening of this story, a young man named Aslak Gunnarssøn asks Olav, now a wealthy landowner in the fjord country west of Oslo, for sanctuary: Aslak has killed a man and is hiding from the law. The reluctant, morose Olav, still haunted by the long-ago death of his wife, Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter, grants Aslak’s wish, but when Aslak falls in love with his young daughter, Cecilia, Olav sends him away. Cecilia’s smile in Aslak’s presence, which “radiated such sweetness and secret joy that Olav couldn’t recall seeing a fairer sight,” soon fades away into gloom. Just so, Olav’s son, Eirik, whom he’s raised as his own although fathered with Ingunn by another man, loses his beloved to an ugly bout of scrofula and, though once a good candidate for the outlaw life, joins a monastery. Lacking heirs, aging and weakening, Olav marries Cecilia off to a loser named Jørund, which introduces still more misery into their daily lives. Cecilia gets her revenge, though, and so, in his own way, does the would-be saint Eirik. The overall glumness of Undset’s concluding volume is of a piece with the earlier books, and it would do a suite of Bergman films proud; the reader should be prepared to accommodate plenty of Nordic darkness punctuated by the occasional flash of a dagger. As always, Undset’s deep knowledge of Catholic doctrine and Scandinavian history informs her work, which, while cheerless and sometimes rather graphic (“Relief set in as soon as he stopped vomiting blood”), is both elegantly written and well translated.
A fine conclusion to an eminently readable classic of modernist historical fiction.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781517915414
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Univ. of Minnesota
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.
A woman faces a health crisis and obsesses over a local accident in this wonderful follow-up to Sandwich (2024).
Newman begins her latest with a quote from Nora Ephron: “Death is a sniper. It strikes people you love, people you like, people you know—it’s everywhere. You could be next. But then you turn out not to be. But then again, you could be.” It sets an appropriate tone for a story that is just as full of death and dread as it is laughter. Two years after the events of Sandwich, Rocky is back home in Western Massachusetts and happily surrounded by family—her daughter, Willa, lives with her and her husband, Nick, while applying to Ph.D. programs; her widowed father, Mort, has moved into the in-law apartment behind their house. When a young man who graduated from high school with Rocky’s son, Jamie, is hit by a train, Rocky finds herself spiraling as she thinks about how close the tragedy came to her own family. She’s also freaking out about a mysterious rash her dermatologist can’t explain. Both instances are tailor-made for internet research and stalking. As Rocky obsessively googles her symptoms and finds only bad news (“Here’s what’s true about the Internet: very infrequently do people log on with their good news. Gosh, they don’t write, I had this weird rash on my forearm? And it turned out to be completely nothing!”), she also compulsively checks the Facebook page of the accident victim’s mother. Newman excels at showing how sorrow and joy coexist in everyday life. She masterfully balances a modern exploration of grief with truly laugh-out-loud lines (one passage about the absurdity of collecting a stool sample and delivering it to the doctor stands out). As Rocky deals with the byzantine frustrations of the medical system, she also has to learn, once more, how to see her children, husband, father, and herself as fully flawed and lovable humans.
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063453913
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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