Staff Pick
One of the most overlooked classics, this novel is the gorgeous and harrowing story of the immigrant experience in America. Based partially on family history, Rolvaag imbues his story with poignancy and brilliance. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The classic story of a Norwegian pioneer family's struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory as they try to make a new life in America.
Synopsis
Giants in the Earth is Ole Edvart Rolvaag's classic Norweigian-American immigration novel.
Part of a trilogy, the novel follows a Norwegian pioneer family's struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory as they try to make a new life in America. The book is based partly on Rolvaag's personal experiences as a settler, and on the experiences of his wife's family who had been immigrant homesteaders. The novel depicts snow storms, locusts, poverty, hunger, loneliness, homesickness, the difficulty of fitting into a new culture, and the estrangement of immigrant children who grow up in a new land.
Giants in the Earth was turned into an opera by Douglas Moore and Arnold Sundgaard; it won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1951.
Synopsis
The fullest, finest, and most powerful novel that has been written about pioneer life in America. -- The Nation
Ole Edvart R lvaag's classic Norweigian-American immigration novel.
Giants in the Earth follows a Norwegian pioneer family's struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory as they try to make a new life in America. The book is based partly on R lvaag's personal experiences as a settler, and on the experiences of his wife's family who had been immigrant homesteaders. The novel depicts snow storms, locusts, poverty, hunger, loneliness, homesickness, the difficulty of fitting into a new culture, and the estrangement of immigrant children who grow up in a new land.
Giants in the Earth was turned into an opera by Douglas Moore and Arnold Sundgaard; it won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1951.
--Times Literary Supplement (London)
Synopsis
"The fullest, finest, and most powerful novel that has been written about pioneer life in America."--The Nation
Ole Edvart R lvaag's classic novel of a family of Norwegian settlers in the Great Plains--a vivid and intimate portrait of the nineteenth-century immigrant experience and the conquest of the American continent.
Based in part on Ole Edvart R lvaag's own recollections as well of those of his wife's family who were immigrant homesteaders, Giants in the Earth is the story of a Norwegian family forging a new life amid the harsh, desolate climate of the Dakota Territory. R lvaag recounts the hardships they endured on the high prairie--blizzards, locust storms, poverty, hunger, loneliness, homesickness, and culture shock--as well as their simple joys. He evokes the hope and the estrangement these immigrants experienced, and illuminates the challenges of their children growing up between two cultures.
About the Author
O. E. Rölvaag was born in 1876. His books include Peder Victorious and Their Fathers' God. He died in 1931.