Tag: historical fiction

The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting (trans. by Deborah Dawkin) #BookReview

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The Bell in the LakeAbout the Book

Norway, 1880. Young, inquisitive Astrid is unlike the other girls in the secluded village at the end of the valley. She dreams of a life that consists of more than marrying, having children, and eventually dying from hard work in the fields. And then the young Pastor Kai Schweigaard comes into her life.

Kai Schweigaard has taken over the small parish of Butangen, with its 700-year-old stave church. The old church is one of the few remaining examples of early Christianisation, with effigies of pagan deities carved into the wooden walls. And the bells – two sister bells forged in the 16th century, in memory of the conjoined twins Halfrid and Gunhild Hekne – are said to have supernatural powers. Legend has it that they ring of their own accord when danger is imminent.

But the Pastor wants to tear it down, to replace it with a more modern, larger church. He has already contacted the Kunstakademie in Dresden, which is sending its talented architecture student Gerhard Schönauer to oversee the removal of the church and its reconstruction in the German city. For Astrid this is a provocation too far.

But Astrid falls in love with Gerhard. He is so different from the young men in Butangen: modern, cosmopolitan, elegant, he even smells different. And she must make a choice: for her homeland and the pastor, or for an uncertain future in Germany. Then the bells begin to ring . . .

Format: ebook (400 pages) Publisher: Quercus
Publication date: 19th March 2020  Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I loved the author’s first novel, The Sixteen Trees of the Somme, so I was excited to learn about his new book, The Bell in the Lake, especially since it is the first in a planned trilogy of historical novels. The book is translated from the Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin.

1880 is a time of change in the world. However, very little has changed in Butangen, or ever seems likely to. “The village was twenty years behind its neighbouring villages, which were thirty years behind Norway’s towns and cities, which were fifty years behind the rest of Europe.” That tension between old and new, change and tradition forms the heart of the novel.

For Astrid Hekne, with her ‘restless mind’, real life, as she sees it, is happening elsewhere. She finds it hard to accept the life path she seems expected to follow. “Tradition favoured girls with course hands who toiled silently as the grindstone turned, who gave birth without fuss…” In a way, Astrid represents the meeting point between the old and the new. Her keen intelligence tells her there is so much more to life, even if she’s not quite sure what it is. “The only thing she knew was that she was searching for something, and that whatever it was, it was not in the village.”

Initially, the new Pastor, Kai Schweigaard, seems to offer the chance of escape for which Astrid is searching. She trades information about the village with him in return for access to newspapers which she reads greedily, grabbing “the outside world with both hands.” The attraction appears to be mutual. Rarely has the folding of a tablecloth been the source of such sexual tension. However, when Schweigaard’s intentions for the old church and, more importantly, for the Sister Bells, become clear, Astrid’s feelings change.

The arrival of Gerhard Schönauer to oversee the demolition of the church creates waves in a number of ways. For one, he is the first human being from the outside world Astrid has ever encountered. Furthermore, he recognizes the old church for the work of craftsmanship it is and its significance for the village, whereas Kai Schweigaard sees it only as a relic of a bygone age. A clash is inevitable and when it comes it has dramatic consequences.

Given the book is translated from another language, I found it interesting that a feature of the book is language and meaning – and its limitations. For example, Kai Schweigaard relies on Astrid Hekne to interpret for him the ‘peculiarities’ of the local people, especially when they are trying to outwit him. And Gerhard Schönauer’s native language is German whereas Astrid’s is Norwegian but using a dialect unique to the area in which certain words simply aren’t in the vocabulary. “Love. This word, which did not exist in her dialect… She could show it, through loyalty and devotion, and through actions, but to say it was impossible.” There are intimate scenes as Gerhard and Astrid teach each other words from their native languages – the word for lip, for love, for kiss.

I loved Astrid as a character for her independent spirit, resourcefulness and questioning mind. Faced with adversity, her response is to, “Collect herself with the same strength that the women before her had collected themselves, through avalanches and floods, tuberculosis and dysentery, frost-ruined harvests and barn fires.”

At times, the novel has a fairy tale or fable like quality, especially in the opening section recounting the story of how the Sister Bells came to be cast. Overall, it is an intriguing mix of myth and romance that explores the tension between the modern world and traditional ways and poses the question whether ‘moving with the times’ always brings about improvement and enlightenment.

Given events towards the end of the book, it will be interesting to see how the story unfolds in the next instalment in the trilogy. In the meantime, if (like me) the book has made you curious to find out more about Norwegian stave churches, you can find information and some wonderful pictures here.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Quercus via NetGalley.

In three words: Atmospheric, dramatic, mystical

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About the Author

Lars Mytting, a novelist and journalist, was born in Fåvang, Norway, in 1968. His novel The Sixteen Trees of the Somme was awarded the Norwegian National Booksellers’ Award and has been bought for film. Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way has become an international bestseller, and was the Bookseller Industry Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year in 2016. The Bell in the Lake, the first in a trilogy, was a number one bestseller in Norway and nominated for the Norwegian National Bookseller’s Award 2018.

Connect with Lars
Website | Goodreads

About the Translator

Deborah Dawkins originally trained in theatre at Drama Centre, London before turning to translation. Her translations include The Blue Room by Hanne Orstavik and Buzz Aldrin: What Happened to You in All the Confusion by Johan Harstad, shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Awards in 2012. She is the co-translator of eight plays by Ibsen for Penguin Classics, and is presently working on a PhD about the life and work of the Ibsen translator Michael Meyer.

 

Warriors for the Working Day by Peter Elstob @I_W_M @Angelamarymar

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Warriors for the Working Day BT June PosterWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Warriors for the Working Day by Peter Elstob, another in the Imperial War Museum’s Wartime Classics series. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to participate and to Angela Martin and the Imperial War Museum for my review copy.

The Wartime Classics series was launched in September 2019 to great acclaim. The novels were all written either during or just after the Second World War and are currently out of print. As part of the Imperial War Museum’s commitment to telling the stories of those who experienced conflict first hand, each novel is written directly from the author’s own experience and takes the reader right into the heart of the battle.

Each book has an introduction by Alan Jeffreys (Senior Curator, Second World War, Imperial War Museums) that sets it in context and gives the wider historical background. He says, ‘researching the Wartime Classics has been one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve worked on in my years at IWM. It’s been very exciting rediscovering these fantastic novels and helping to bring them to the wider readership they so deserve’. You can find a complete list of the books published so far in the Wartime Classics series here.

20200325_131506-1About the Book

May 1944, the Royal Armoured Corps prepares for the invasion of north-west Europe. Young and conscientious, Michael Brook is quickly promoted to tank commander. He must overcome not only his own fear, but the dissent and doubts of his ever-changing crew, as the war takes them over the Rhine and into Germany. The men encounter both jubilant civilians and stiff enemy resistance as the conflict exacts a heavy toll.

Based on Peter Elstob’s own wartime experience, Warriors for the Working Day brilliantly evokes the particular ferocity, heat, and terror of tank warfare. This new edition of a 1960 classic features a contextual introduction from then Imperial War Museum which sheds new light on the true events that so inspired its author.

Format: Paperback (320 pages)        Publisher: Imperial War Museum
Publication date: 26th March 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction

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Purchase links*
Publisher | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

By focusing predominantly on the experiences of the five men who form the tank crew – those very much at “the sharp end” of the fighting – the author creates a vivid picture of the reality of living for much of the time in what the Germans referred to as ‘Tommy cookers’ (so-called because of the Sherman tank’s propensity to burst into flames when hit). As the men of One Troop discover, a tank with its hatches closed is like “a blind monster at the mercy of a fast sharp-eyed enemy”, and an enemy with superior fire power to boot. It was even worse for the tank commander in the turret. Despite the fact their head was a prime target for an enemy sniper, it was impossible in practice to command a tank with the turret closed.

The reader really gets to know the individual characters, in particular Brook, and become invested in their feelings and their welfare. Their letters home, downplaying the danger they face and full of hopes and plans for the future, are incredibly poignant especially since the reader is aware they probably won’t all make it. As those higher up the chain of command congratulate themselves on successes hard won by those on the front line, the contrast with the experiences of the tank crews becomes even more stark.

As the book eloquently shows, battle fatigue – mental as much as physical – becomes a major issue, even if the men themselves may not realise it. “Most of them were unaware that anything much was wrong with them, for they were uncomplicated men not given to introspection. They knew they were frightened, but they knew that everyone else was frightened too, and had come to realise that wars are fought by a few frightened men facing each other – the sharp end of the sword…”

Each man at one point or another wonders about his capacity to carry on and whether he has reached breaking point. With echoes of Catch-22, one muses, “He could go to the M.O. and say he had had enough, but as long as you could go and say that you’d had enough you were still able to direct your mind and your body and you hadn’t had enough.”

The men are bound together by an inspiring sense of camaraderie that means even when ordered to advance into dangerous territory and offered the chance to reduce their personal risk, the feeling is “Look, if you’re a tank crew, you’re a tank crew. Either we all bale out or we all stay in“.

As well as being a compelling human story, I learned a lot from Warriors for the Working Day. For example, the different roles in a tank crew – commander, driver, co-driver, gunner and wireless operator – and the recipe for the rather disgusting sounding “burgoo”. (Army biscuits dissolved in tinned milk, slowly heated in a mess tin with treacle or brown sugar, if you’re wondering.)

The book’s title comes from Shakespeare’s play Henry V. (The mention of that play always conjures up in my mind an image of Kenneth Branagh in his terrific 1989 film version or Laurence Olivier in the splendid earlier version made in 1944. Incidentally, the latter was intended as a wartime morale booster and was partly funded by the British government.) Leading his bedraggled army through France, Henry says: “We are but warriors for the working day… But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim.”

Brook and his crew members certainly demonstrate their “hearts are in the trim” as they endure the close confinement of the tank’s interior and the constant need to stay alert, aware that any moment could be their last. As one of the final missions described in the book ends in disarray and confusion, it illustrates – if further illustration was needed – the futility of war and the sheer waste of young lives it represents.

The following quotation from historian James Holland sums up my feelings about the book exactly. “Few other novels of the war describe the grinding claustrophobia, violence and lethal danger of being in a tank crew with the stark vividness of Peter Elstob… a forgotten classic that deserves to be read and read.”

In three words: Powerful, immersive, dramatic

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Peter Elstob Author PicAbout the Author

Peter Elstob (1915 – 2002) was born in London but attended school in the United States. He studied briefly in Michegan before a short stint in the RAF and as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. On the outbreak of the Second World War he volunteered for the army and joined the 3rd Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment.

After the war, Elstob pursued several ventures, wrote many books and was by all accounts a colourful character. He died in 2002.