Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath, The Wife, The Cross

My favorite book of all time, my father's favorite book, and a favorite of my young adult daughter. This epic story of a woman's life - from childhood to her death - takes the reader to fourteenth century Norway in vivid detail. Undset's historically accurate novels won her the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928.

In her great historical epic Kristin Lavransdatter, set in fourteenth-century Norway, Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset tells the life story of one passionate and headstrong woman. Painting a richly detailed backdrop, Undset immerses readers in the day-to-day life, social conventions, and political and religious undercurrents of the period. Now in one volume, Tiina Nunnally’s award-winning definitive translation brings this remarkable work to life with clarity and lyrical beauty.

As a young girl, Kristin is deeply devoted to her father, a kind and courageous man. But when as a student in a convent school she meets the charming and impetuous Erlend Nikulaussøn, she defies her parents in pursuit of her own desires. Her saga continues through her marriage to Erlend, their tumultuous life together raising seven sons as Erlend seeks to strengthen his political influence, and finally their estrangement as the world around them tumbles into uncertainty.

With its captivating heroine and emotional potency, Kristin Lavransdatter is the masterwork of Norway’s most beloved author—one of the twentieth century’s most prodigious and engaged literary minds—and, in Nunnally’s exquisite translation, a story that continues to enthrall.

Tiina Nunnally has returned a masterpiece of Scandinavian literature to the English bookshelf (PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize citation)

Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) was born in Denmark and raised in Norway. A prolific writer of novels, stories, and essays on subjects ranging from Scandinavian history and literature to the Catholic church and politics, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928.
Tiina Nunnally is an award-winning translator of Scandinavian fiction and the author of three novels.
Brad Leithauser is the author of several novels, four volumes of poetry, and a collection of essays. He is the Emily Dickinson Lecturer in the Humanities at Mount Holyoke College.

Imprint: Penguin Classics
Distributor: Penguin Group USA, Inc
Publication Date: 09-27-2005
Pages: 1168
Measurements: 8.36in X 5.58in X 1.97in X 2.60lb