The Bell in the Lake - Lars Mytting translated by Deborah Dawkin

Let us commence with all matters blurbish - 

‘The first in a rich historical trilogy that draws on legend, by a literary craftsman and the author of The Sixteen Trees of the Somme

Norway, 1880. Winter is hard in Butangen, a village secluded at the end of a valley. The lake has frozen, and for months the ground is too hard to bury the dead. Astrid Hekne dreams of a life beyond all this, beyond marriage, children, and working the land to the end of her days. Then Pastor Kai Schweigaard takes over the small parish, with its 700-year-old stave church carved with pagan deities. The two bells in the tower were forged by Astrid’s forefather in the sixteenth century, in memory of conjoined twins Halfrid and Gunhild Hekne. They are said to hold supernatural powers.

The villagers are wary of the pastor and his resolve to do away with their centuries-old traditions, though Astrid also finds herself drawn to him. And then a stranger arrives from Dresden, with grand plans for the church itself. For headstrong Astrid this may be a provocation too far.

Talented architecture student Gerhard Schönauer is an improbable figure in this rugged community. Astrid has never met anyone like him; he seems so different, so sensitive. She finds that she must make a choice: for her homeland and the pastor, or for an uncertain future in Germany. 

Then the bells begin to ring . . .’

The first in a trilogy? Thank goodness! For I need to know what happens next. Lars Mytting has constructed a bewitching tale of Norwegian cold and legend creating an atmospheric landscape that transports  the reader back to a nineteenth century village freezing in the fjords and its stave church. I had never heard of a stave church before I read this book. I’m such an anorak I googled them and I looked at the pictures. Now all  I want to do is see one, feel one, experience one with all its mystical carvings and portals that make religion seem almost magical! Quite an achievement! 

This stave church is at the heart of this extraordinarily rich and layered story with a congregation of characters. Conjoined twins are the catalyst, Halfrid and Gunhild set the scene. Astrid Hekne, with a family history that she allows in part to define her , but more to complement her and her intuitive perceptions regarding the place of women in this faintly homogeneous  community. Kai Schweigaard the new pastor, young , patiently restless with a desire to improve and in possession of a keen ambition to make his mark. Gerhard Schonauer, ostensibly an architect, but with an artistic talent that allows his work to speak to even the casual observer. Schonauer from Germany seems to be everything Schweigaard is not, a metaphorical representation perhaps of the sociological ambience of the time. Astrid, intelligent yet not overly educated intuits those fundamental  differences and, without divulging too much of the plot, ultimately has to make a choice.

With a substantial narrative that possesses all the flavour of trilogy and history resplendent with rich detail and almost palpable atmosphere, you can smell the wood of the church, feel the cold of the frozen and icy lake, hear the ghostly tolling of the bells. see Gerhard’s drawings, be moved at Kai’s funeral services and feel Astrid’s dilemmas. No surprise, then, that this book has been a best seller in Mytting’s native Norway. 

It’s an impressive work and I’m excited for the next instalment. It has the potential to metaphorically explore the development, perhaps, of Europe examining the differences and the ‘progress’ of society.

Thanks to Quercus Books and MacLehose Press of a copy of this book.