Dr. Maren Johnson, Luther College’s Associate Professor of Nordic Studies and Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies Director, facilitates a regular bokprat, discussing Scandinavian authors and Scandinavian life.

The May bokprat features Vilhelm Moberg’s novel Unto a Good Land, the second in his Emigrant Novels series.

Considered one of Sweden’s greatest 20th-century writers, Vilhelm Moberg created the characters Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson to portray the joys and tragedies of daily life for early Swedish immigrants in America. His consistently faithful depiction of these humble people’s lives is a major strength of the Emigrant Novels.

Moberg’s extensive research of the papers of Swedish emigrants in archival collections enabled him to incorporate many details of pioneer life. First published between 1949 and 1959 in Swedish, these four books were considered a single work by Moberg, who intended that they be read as documentary novels. These reprint editions contain introductions written by Roger McKnight of Gustavus Adolphus College, and they restore Moberg’s bibliography not included in earlier English editions.

The second book in the series, Unto a Good Land opens in the summer of 1850 as the emigrants disembark in New York City. Their journey to a new home in Minnesota Territory takes them by riverboat, steam wagon, Great Lakes steamship, and oxcart to Chisago County.

Registration is required for this free event. Find more info and register here.