about
The Snowdrop Waltz
Trilogy:
"Amazing - it's great books you share with us. I'm laughing and crying. Many memories, even though I grew up in the 1950s. I recommend your books to everyone I meet, especially from Stavanger. They're just a 'must have'!"
Marit Helen Johansen
"I would like to congratulate both the author and publisher of this historical novel. It is not every day I read such a thoroughly elegant Norwegian fiction writer with a Christian profile."
The newspaper Dagen about Red Campions.
"A masterpiece!"
Dennis Scott, local historian of Mitchell, SD.
The trilogy follows the siblings Andreas and Josephine on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, from the end of the 19th to the dawn of the 20th century. The novels are important contributions to understand why the Norwegians left, and the reality that met these great pioneers as they arrived in the West. They are loaded with authentic details, and make learning history enjoyable and interesting.
Dag Gustav Gundersen Storla (born 1962), is a Norwegian physician, and a former medical missionary to Bangladesh. Currently, he works as a specialist in infectious diseases and chronic fatigue. He has a special interest in the local history of his hometown, Stavanger, as well as the Norwegian pioneers of the West.
The first novel, Snowdrop Waltz, is a warm defense of poor people in Stavanger in the 1870s.
“I’ve wanted to describe the life stories of struggling young people with an unbending will to live. Just as snowdrops break their way through ice and snow,” says author Dag Gustav Gundersen Storla.
The latter half of the nineteenth century is also a particularly interesting period. The emergence of modern Norway began. And in Stavanger, everything peaked because the economy and living conditions fluctuated far more here than most other places. The herring disappeared, the tall-ship era ended, and the sardine-canning industry emerged. “I describe ordinary people and am trying to portray society as it looked from below— from the perspective of those who were so desperately poor that we can hardly comprehend their situation, 130 years later.
The second novel, Red Campions, includes major fraud and unemployment; Prohibited love and a forced marriage; Fighting to survive; Fire and an attempted murder; Sardines and Labor rights; Immigration to America. And who are the parents of little Signe? These are challenges that await the siblings Josephine and Andreas. We follow them in their struggle for love and happiness. Although much is false, there is something real.
The epic drama of a family;
from Stavanger, Norway to
Mitchell, South Dakota - and back again ...
STAVANGER
MITCHELL
In the third novel, Watch the lilies how they grow, Josephine has left her hometown Stavanger behind and is embarking on the long boat trip to New York. She travels by rail to South Dakota - where Alvin is waiting. A new life awaits.
In Stavanger, Andreas is working hard to make his tailor business succeed. He sees opportunities, which steer him towards a safe position among the city's businessmen. In this third and final novel we follow the siblings, Josephine and Andreas, into a new century. On both side of the Atlantic, they experience the shaping and crumbling of their dreams. When the stakes are high, there is a lot to be lost. But is the price so high that they can lose themselves?