The Emigrants

First published in English in 1925, Johan Bojer's 'The Emigrants' is the story of a group of Norwegians who leave Trondheim in the 1880s to homestead in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. Among the emigrants whose fortunes we follow are Else, daughter of the richest man of the parish, who must run away if she is to marry Ola Vatne, a hired hand; a young radical, Per Foll; Anton Noreng, called "Mother's darling," the spoiled son of the town clerk; Kal and Karen Skaret and their brood, the most impoverished of all the tenant farmers; the chronic malcontent, Jo Berg; Anne Ramsoy, daughter of a well-to-do farmer; and Morten Kvidal, who dreams of clearing the name of his father, who hanged himself after being unjustly accused of forgery. A superb storyteller, Bojer convincingly recounts the adversities, losses and triumphs which mark their adjustment to pioneer life. Quite apart from its narrative interest (as Paul Reigstad observes in his introduction), A"The Emigrants deserves to be read today because. it relates so many vital characters to an experience still fresh in the consciousness of Europeans and Americans, the settlement of the New World. Our understanding of human nature, as well as of the emigrant experience, is enlarged by reading this book, especially our knowledge of the conditions which impelled so many people, at great risk, to break ties with the beloved homeland."