The Emigrants: The Emigrant Novels: Book I

This is the French text edition of an epic work by its Swedish author. Translated from Swedish into English, this beautifully written book of historical fiction was first published in 1954 and met with excellent reviews at the time. It is the second part of a four part opus, the first of which is "The Emigrants". This book, "Unto a Good Land", is followed by two additional books, "The Settlers" and "Last Letter From Home". In the first volume, "The Emigrants", the author detailed the emigration of a Swedish family to the New World, grounding it in the reasons for the exodus of so many Swedes from their mother country in the middle of the 19th century. The focus of the first book in this four part opus is on the family, relatives, and friends of Karl Oscar Nilsson, a peasant farmer who unceasingly worked his farm, only to find that, no matter what he did, he could not progress and would continue to live on the cusp of total poverty. The focus of the first book is on their life in Sweden. Gathering up his family and friends of the family, the Nilsson family decides to take the monumental step of making a fresh start by emigrating to the new world, specifically the United States of America. The second volume, "Unto a Good Land", focuses on the arrival of the Nilsson family and friends in the United States of America. It details their journey from New York, a journey that was to take them across the Midwest by rail, steamer, and foot to arrive in the wilds of what would one day be the State of Minnesota. It is in this wilderness that the Nilsson family and friends would homestead and struggle to make a new home. The author regales the reader with the travails this hardy group of settlers would encounter in their efforts to create by the sweat of their brow a new home in the wilderness. The early struggles of the Nilsson family to succeed in what was an unknown frontier is engagingly chronicled. I have enjoyed the first and second volumes so much that I look forward to continuing their journey with them by reading the remaining two volumes. This is a book that those who love historical fiction will greatly enjoy.

How wonderful to hear the story of our ancestors through the writing of one of Swedens best writers. We follow a group of emigrating Swedes closely as they make the enormous move from Sweden to America. This emigrant epic reminds you of how things have been, and who Americans are. I emigrated from Sweden to America like they did, only more than a hundred years later. Foremost, I feel that Moberg captures the torn inside of an emigrant fenomenally, many tears were shed while reading of the torment Kristina feels. It's as true today as it ever was, and the author tells exactly how I and many others feel having left one land to be part of another. The books are splendid reading, you can't put them down.

I read all four books in Swedish language and just couldn't put them down, although I am Austrian...my only connection to Sweden is that I lived there for one year. After having read this book I could understand much better the American society and how it developed, but also got a deeper insight into Swedish history. I am dying to see the musical "Kristina fran Duvemala"!!!

This book is must reading for anyone interested in genealogy who wants to understand why our ancestors came to America. I feel as if I now understand what life was like for my ancestors before they emigranted and how difficult the journey to America was. This book is extremely well written, easy to read, engaging and the character development makes you truly care about their fate. This is one of my favorite books. I recommend it most highly.