Giants in the Earth

A beautiful and magnificent story. Rølvaag does an amazing job of dealing with the stereotype of Norwegians: good folk, down to earth, solid, dependable, clinically depressed, and emotionally clueless. He takes these standardized views of a complex population and shows them for what they are: the absolute truth. And he should know. Joking aside, he shows us a side of our humanity that is easily stereotyped in literature and makes it real and beautiful (though very, very sad).

Also, I want to grow up to be the minister. He did his job so very well.