The Snake Pit: The Master of Hestviken, Vol. 2

In the second novel of her powerful saga The Master of Hestviken, Sigrid Undset turns the magnificent landscape of thirteenth-century Norway into the backdrop for a brilliantly insightful and often unsparing portrait of a marriage. Olav Audunsson and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter became lovers when they were barely beyond childhood and endured a long and bitter separation before they could wed. Now they are beginning what each hopes will be a new life - but in Ingunn s past lies the shame of an illegitimate child and in Olav s past lies murder. And the guilt they carry may prove more destructive of their happiness than all the years they spent as outcasts. In conveying both the emotional immediacy of Olav and Ingunn s love and the epic sweep of their story, The Snake Pit is a masterly re-creation of a vanished world tainted by bloodshed and haunted by sin and retribution.Author: Sigrid UndsetPages: 240, PaperbackPublisher: Random HouseISBN: 0-679-75554-3