I loved this book. I don't know how historically accurate any of this was, but loved every minute I spent in Greenland, via this novel. I felt it was right up there with "Kristen Lavransdatter,(Sigrud Undset). ( )

I remember reading this the summer after Tim was born. The language was difficult to understand at first, but once I got used to it I found myself using it in conversations. ( )

This book tells the story of a whole community - the descendants of Norse settlers in Greenland over the last half of the 14th century. It is a story of slow decline (with the occasional brief reversal in fortunes). The Greenlanders are suffering from the onset of the Little Ice Age, which makes the summer growing season shorter. At the same time, the community is increasingly isolated from the rest of Europe - Norway is in the grip of the Black Death, and is losing interest in its far-flung colony. (Without any trees themselves, the Greenlanders cannot build ocean-going ships).

The story is told as a saga, with language and scope to match. It took me about 100 pages to get used to the style - initially I was quite frustrated by the scale, and kept waiting for a main character to emerge. (That was fairly fruitless - at one point it felt as if as soon as someone developed a personality they died.) But once I accepted that wasn't going to happen, I could appreciate the skill and subtlety of the narrative. The life of the community is fantastically well-imagined, and the saga style is well executed. It gives the reader a strong sense of the cycles of life: whether these are cycles of vengeance (the core of the first part of the book is a running vendetta between two neighbouring families), the cycles of the seasons, or the way that different people go through similar events, emotions and choices.

There is a real focus, as well, on stories - people tend to tell a story when they want to give advice, warning or comfort to another (for example, a woman's lover tells her stories of people whose affairs, while adulterous, are clearly seen favourable by the fates).

In fact, one of the best things about the saga style is that there is very little psychological description - we have to work out the motivations largely from what people say or do. So, for example, sometime after a marriage of convenience, we are told: "she went to him and sat close beside him in a way that was unusual. Now Olaf looked at his wife and laughed and said, "Have you been trying your own potions, then, so that you have blinded yourself to my low brow and swarthy looks?" Margret had no answer to this, and Olaf went outside". This is all there is to tell us that the marriage is never consummated.

This book might not suit everyone. But if you have the time to give yourself over to it, I think it is a very rewarding read. ( )

Immediately upon finishing Sigrid Undset's "Kristin Lavransdatter" I picked this book up to read. Chronologically, it picks up right where "KL" leaves off, except this middle-ages novel is set in Greenland, rather than Norway. This is a slow-going book, and exceedingly grim at times, but a masterpiece nonetheless. Smiley is an impressive, expansive writer; one of my favorites for her repetoire and methodical research. It really isn't until the end of this book that the reader infers who is really telling this story, and why its being told. But Smiley convincingly maintains the cadence and voice of the period the whole way. I was very impressed with this book and was surprised not to be able to find more acclaim for it on the Web. When I finally finished, I had spent six weeks reading books set in 14th Century North Atlantic. It was a bit hard to come back to the present. ( )

This is a great novel - an allegory of our society.