The Greenlanders

Jane Smiley
3.93
3,029 ratings 472 reviews
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres—and "a diverse and masterly writer” (The New York Times Book Review)—comes an enthralling epic tale, written in the tradition of the old Norse sagas, that takes us to fourteenth-century Greenland and tells the story of a proud landowner and his unforgettable family.  Jane Smiley brings us to a farflung place of glittering fjords, blasting winds, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains. This is the story of one proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose willful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Jane Smiley immerses us in this world of farmers, priests, and lawspeakers, of hunts and feasts and long-standing feuds, and by an act of literary magic, makes a remote time, place, and people not only real but dear to us.
Genres: Historical FictionFictionHistoricalMedievalNovelsLiterary FictionLiterature14th CenturyBook ClubScandinavian Literature
582 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
1159 (38%)
4 star
964 (32%)
3 star
557 (18%)
2 star
229 (8%)
1 star
120 (4%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by Jane Smiley

Lists with this book

The Book Thief
All Quiet on the Western Front
All the Light We Cannot See
Historical Fiction set in Europe
225 books • 36 voters
Matilda
A Brief History of Time
The Silence of the Lambs
Best Books of 1988
379 books • 171 voters