Jump to content

The Greenlanders

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Greenlanders
First edition cover
AuthorJane Smiley
Cover artistJohn Rush
LanguageEnglish
PublisherAlfred A. Knopf
Publication date
March 12, 1988
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages558
ISBN0-394-55120-6
LC ClassPS3569.M39 G7 1988

The Greenlanders is a 1988 historical-fiction epic novel by American author Jane Smiley.

The novel gives a speculative account of the Norse inhabitation of Greenland in the 14th and 15th centuries, written in the style of an Icelandic or Norse saga.

Plot

[edit]

The Greenlanders describes the daily affairs of Nordic settlers living in medieval southern Greenland, including marriages, births, deaths, famines, epidemics, trials at the Thing, church affairs, land feuds, seal hunts, military invasions, and encounters with Greenland's aboriginal inhabitants.

In particular, the book follows the lives of Gunnar Asgeirsson, an unlucky, violent, litigious man, and his sister, Margret Asgeirsdottir, a quiet, solitary, melancholic woman on their homestead in the Vatnahverfi district. Though the novel also follows the lives of many other Greenlanders, Gunnar and Margret function as the novel's protagonists. The novel also features several historically documented individuals and events in Greenland and elsewhere, including the spread of Islam into southern Europe, assaults on Greenlanders' settlements by English raiders, and the witchcraft trial of Kolgrim.

Reception

[edit]

The Greenlanders was reviewed favorably. Kirkus Reviews called it a "bleak, stirring picture of the slow slouch towards the death of a civilization".[1] In a 2010 Time article, American author Jonathan Franzen included it in his list of influential books,[2] and in an interview with Big Think, Franzen said, "I do not know of a better American novel within the last twenty years" than The Greenlanders.[3]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "THE GREENLANDERS by Jane Smiley". Kirkus Reviews. March 15, 1988. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  2. ^ Franzen, Jonathan (August 12, 2010). "'The Greenlanders' by Jane Smiley - Franzen's Bookshelf". Time. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  3. ^ Franzen, Jonathan (April 14, 2008). Jonathan Franzen on Underappreciated Books. Big Think. Retrieved June 5, 2016.