New Novel from Sólrún Michelsen

The novel begins with a tragic event. A mother dies during childbirth, leaving ten children behind. Not an uncommon incident over a hundred years ago. The grief is silenced. The father remarries, the children are dispersed and their fates take very different turns. Taking place in the late nineteenth century, the novel weaves the conflicts within religion, politics, trade unions and culture that transpired at the turn of the century, into tales of destiny – including the one of tyrannical Axel Fr. Moe, who is sent to the Faroes by the Danish Inner Mission. The one girl, who has big plans for her future, goes to a farm to work and earn some money before going abroad to follow her dream. The farmer rapes her and a baby is born. Nobody gets to know who the father is but she has to live with the shame. We follow her through her lonely journey as she tries to regain her footing after the atrocity. This is a magnanimous story in all its modesty. A tender and emotional narrative that could have disappeared into a pile of other similar stories, but which now has become a fine novel. The main character and her experiences are based on real-life events.