The Night of the Scourge

AN EPIC, RIVETING FAMILY DRAMA SET IN WORLD WAR II–ERA NORWAY

Butangen, Norway, the years before WWII: The elderly priest Kai Schweigaard is wondering how his death, prophesied in a centuries-old tapestry, will come to pass. He knows of the mythical Night of the Scourge, which, according to old village beliefs, is the night when the known world will fall and the Earth will be scraped down to bare rock. Is this how he dies?

Meanwhile, Astrid Hekne lives in the legacy of her grandmother, who was a protector of the mythic Sister Bells that had once hung in the village’s centuries-old stave church. Astrid has inherited both her hypersensitivity and her fighting spirit. When Norway is occupied by the Nazis, Astrid joins the Resistance, suspecting betrayal in her family, and Kai is thrown out of his own church. Rumors and mistrust abound, and when the war ends, special sacrifice will be needed to combat them.

This family drama, which beautifully completes the Sister Bells trilogy, can also be read as a standalone—a grand and epic novel that intertwines Norwegian folklore and mythology with a rich story of hardship and passion.

“There is a poetic and literary power to these books that exceeds the bounds of any genre.”—Klassekampen