Master of Hestviken

The Master of Hestviken by Sigrid Undset, 994 pages

By right, Olav Audunson inherits the estate of Hestviken when he is still a boy, although he is an orphan living far from the home of his ancestors.  By the time he is able to take possession of it, decades have passed and he has already experienced love, hatred, loss, exile, betrayal, and mortal sin.  His struggle with this last defines his life, a grim life full of tragedy illuminated only by intermittent flashes of grace.

The Master of Hestviken is a series made up of four novels, The Axe, The Snake Pit, In the Wilderness, and The Son Avenger, set in 13th century Norway.  Although there is a bit of action and bloodshed, and quite a bit of romance, it is fundamentally a social, familial, psychological, and theological drama.  It is slow-moving and complex, but also compelling, heartbreaking, and surprising.