The Son Avenger

In the concluding volume of The Master of Hestviken epic, Sigrid Undset combines an astonishing fidelity to the landscape, culture, and mores of thirteenth-century Norway with a timeless insight into the labyrinths of passion and bitterness, guilt and faith. As a young man, Olav Audunsson committed two murders for love. Now he has outlived his enemies and the woman he killed for. In the last years of his life, Olav must watch his grown children--and particularly his rebellious son Eirik--reenact the sins of his youth, with even more fearful consequences. Powerfully written and filled with magnificent vignettes of the daily life of a medieval estate, The Son Avenger suggests a Greek tragedy whose vision of fate coexists with a Christian sense of suffering and forgiveness.