Richard I (1157–99) was king of England from 1189 until his death, but he is best known as a soldier, not a monarch. He earned his moniker Richard the Lionheart as a knight and military leader, and his revolt against his father Henry II and his conquest of Cyprus as part of the Crusades helped to solidify his historical legend. In Lionheart, Norwegian author Thorvald Steen, celebrated for his historical novels, brings his characteristic accuracy and artistic vision to the life of Richard I. Lionheart is the story of a man living in the shadow of his own myth, also a fanatic general who wants to conquer the world’s greatest sanctum and a king that is suddenly vulnerable. At the age of fifteen he leads an army against his father. Fourteen years later he is the Pope’s obvious choice to lead the third Crusade. But the Richard of Steen’s novel is less sure of himself and his role—is it true that he is God’s chosen one, like his mother says? Built on extensive research, Steen paints a dark and conflicted, yet credible and convincing, portrait of a man who has engrossed historians, poets, novelists and readers for centuries. "Thorvald Steen’s new novel Lionheart is a fascinating read. . . . Steen manages to give flesh and blood to a historical icon, and creates a story with energy, dressed in sober yet sublime language."—Dagsavisen, on the Norwegian edition

Lionheart

Literature & Fiction

Steen, Thorvald

Genre Fiction

Seagull Books

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic politician, writer, and historian living during the twelfth century. He was a man of great political influence, and his writings are still researched and valued today. Snorri was killed on September 22, 1241, in Reykholt, where he lived the last years of his life, and The Little Horse is a novel about his final five days. Snorri, knowing his end is near, begins to write a saga of his own life. He wants to refute all those who oppose him in Norway and Iceland, and defend himself against rumors that he is power hungry and a deceitful womanizer. He is haunted by the fear that his son Orækja will turn against him, and waits to meet Margaret, the woman he loves, who challenges him in every possible way. Meanwhile, assassins in the distance prepare to carry out their orders to end his life. This creative, beautifully constructed novel reimagines the final days of this Icelandic hero, providing a wonderful new perspective on the politics and culture of the period.

The Little Horse

Contemporary

<div>The year is 323 bce. King Alexander of Macedonia--Alexander the Great--lies paralyzed by poison in his palace in Babylon. He is thirty-two years old, had Aristotle as a mentor, and is the greatest military commander the world has ever seen. At the other end of the palace, Phyllis, a cook for Alexander's army, sits locked in a room, arrested on suspicion of being the poisoner. All of her adult life she has lived in the field--and for a long period of time was Alexander's lover. &nbsp; Who has poisoned the king? Phyllis is allowed to live as long as she writes down everything she knows about Alexander. She tells a brutal story of the violent daily life in the war, about the planning of the expansion into the Arabian Peninsula, about an invisible library containing marvelous manuscripts and discoveries, and about the passion between a cook and a king. &nbsp; With The Invisble Library, Thorvald Steen interweaves known and unknown, relying on facts until they run out, then building his story on what is probable, to tell the story of a little-known period in the life of one of the most renowned figures in history. The result is an existential and inspired novel that goes to the heart of the human experience--who are we in war, in love, during the final days of life? &nbsp;</div>

The Invisible Library (Swiss List)

World Literature

A novel about disability, family secrets, and Norway's eugenic past.&nbsp; The White Bathing Hut is a genetic detective story. The narrator uses a wheelchair because of an inherited illness that has caused his muscle tissue to degenerate, making him unable to walk. One day, he falls from his wheelchair. His family is away, his cell phone out of reach, and he has no choice but to lie on the floor of his apartment, dissecting his life, until help arrives. He recalls his parents' reactions of shame and silence when, as a teenager, his illness was first diagnosed. Now in her old age, his mother remains stubbornly secretive. A chance call from a cousin provides the narrator with clues about his grandfather and uncle, whom he never met and who both also had the disease. His search for the truth about his heredity is given new urgency when his mother is diagnosed with cancer. He must persuade her to speak before she dies, for his own sake and for his daughter's. The White Bathing Hut is an indictment of contemporary Norwegian society, which claims to abhor its history of eugenics, yet still seeks to control the lives of people with disabilities.&nbsp;

The White Bathing Hut

Don Carlos (Sun & Moon Classics)

Fiction. In the months of September and October 1833 a young Englishman known as Don Carlos finds himself in Buenos Aires. There he meets a casual laborer, Giovanni Graciani, from Genoa, Italy. This penetrating novel is a long letter Giovanni writes back home to his brother, recounting his own abandonment of faith, the politcal upheavals and bloody events of Argentine history, and his encounters with the man he calls Don Carlos -- An Englishman whose name he only mentions once, but is unforgettable in the memory: Charles Robert Darwin. "Short, concise, and almost flawless. You can compare it with Hamsun, Camus or whomever" -- Adresseavisen. "... one of the most important novels this year, maybe this decade." Dag og Tid. Part of Sun & Moon's Classics series. Translated from the Norwegian by James Anderson.

Science & Math

Sun & Moon Press

These two novels tell the story of Charles Darwin as a young man. A crewmember on the HMS Beagle, the vessel that underwent a worldwide expedition from 1831 to 1836, Darwin discovers the material which enabled him to write The Origin of Species. As opposed to the rational Darwin, Giovanni is a skeptic who has abandoned his Catholic beliefs, but as the story progresses Giovanni becomes more and more rational, while Don Carlos finds himself drawn to the irrational.

Don Carlos and Giovanni (Green Integer)

Literary

Green Integer

Den lille hesten: Roman (Norwegian Edition)

Forlaget Oktober

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Books by Steen, Thorvald

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Steen, Thorvald. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Lionheart

The Little Horse

The Invisible Library (Swiss List)

Lionheart

The White Bathing Hut

Don Carlos (Sun & Moon Classics)

Don Carlos (Sun & Moon Classics)

Don Carlos and Giovanni (Green Integer)

Den lille hesten: Roman (Norwegian Edition)