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The Reindeer Hunters is the second book in the Lar Mytting's Sister Bells trilogy, so don't read on unless you have read the first book, The Bell in the Lake . The second book in the trilogy opens in 1903, over twenty years after the events recounted in The Bell in the Lake . The previous book ended with the pregnant Astrid Hekne seeking to leave the small frozen village farming community of Butangen in the far north of Norway, seeking to fulfill a dream of seeing more of the wider world that had been open up to her by the visit of a German architect, Gerhard Schönauer, who had come to the village to dismantle the village's traditional medieval stave church for transportation and rebuilding in Dresden. Astrid however has died during childbirth, giving birth to twins. Guilty over the fact that his actions may have contributed to Astrid's untimely death, the pastor Kai Schweigaard brings one child Jehans back to Butangen, believing that only one of them has survived. The...

Books of the Year 2020 Like any personal best of list, the selections are inevitably limited by what one was able to have the time to read, watch or listen to, and it can in no way be definitive or comprehensive reflection of what was the best out there. As far as books go, there are plenty of literary awards with panels to choose from a wider selection, but for a single reader, the time invested means that you tend to stick with genres you are familiar with and writers who never let you down. Occasionally however, books come your way that are a delightful surprise precisely because you weren't expecting it. This year I read and reviewed 72 books for various places, of which 49 were English language novels, 6 were in French, 2 were in Spanish and 15 were graphic novels. My favourite 5 books (and one graphic novel) consequently consist of three favourite writers who didn't disappoint this year and two authors new to me in the literary genre that I wasn't expecting to impress...

Set in a small remote poor farming community in Butangen in the frozen far north of Norway around 1880, The Bell in the Lake is the first book of a proposed trilogy that it would appear is going to develop into a grand family saga. There’s no need for any reader concerned about committing themselves to a long drawn out tale, as this first book is simply wonderfully absorbing and complete on its own terms, but the likelihood is that you will be entranced by the world the Mytting depicts so lovingly and be enchanted and intrigued to see where he takes it next. Gerhard Schonauer is an apprentice architect and an accomplished draughtsman who has been sent to a remote Norwegian village that has a superb example of one of the few remaining medieval wooden stave churches in the region. The new parson Kai Schweigaard wants to build a more modest church that can better serve the people of the village and has sold the old church for it to be transported and reconstructed in the German city of D...