An atmospheric book that lingers in the mind. This book is a slow burner and it took a third of the book to get into it. Once hooked I had to finish it. Astrid feels trapped in her village but falls for both the local priest and a young German architect sent to remove the stave church. I did feel that where Astrid goes toward the end of the book did seem out of character. As it's the first part of a trilogy I am interested to see how the story continues.

This novel begins with a dark undertone, and a sense of foreboding, building suspense and mystery.
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The first in a Historical Fiction trilogy, Lars Mytting centres his novel around three main protagonists, Astrid, Kai and Gerhard, brought together in a remote Norwegian village in 1880s.
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Mytting’s writing is translated beautifully from Norwegian to English, and is stunningly descriptive and atmospheric. This, however was to the detriment of the pace of the plot, which I must admit I found was tediously slow.
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For me, the slower pace, particularly at the start of the novel, reduced its emotional impact and my level of engagement with the characters. Whilst Mytting takes a lot of time to reflect on the innermost thoughts and feelings of the three main characters, it wasn’t until the plot gained pace in the final third of the novel that I really felt invested in any of the characters and their story arcs.
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Mytting explores themes of the passing of time, grief, loss and identity through this novel. I particularly enjoyed Mytting’s exploration of superstition, faith and belief through his central and supporting characters, that I hope will be continued through the remainder of the trilogy.
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Mytting leaves elements of the novel open to interpretation, and leaves elements of the plot open ended to keep the reader wondering what happens next. It is definitely enough for me to pick up the next book in the trilogy...and hope the next book continues at the same pace this one finished at.
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I would like to thank Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review and feedback.

This was a little different from my usual read, but I enjoyed it. It was a slow burn. I love the characters and the writing is beautiful.
It is full of description and folklore.
Nice book.
3 stars.

The book from the start seems to be quite heavy going for the first 80 or so pages. I'm not sure if this is the translation as I haven't read anything by either novelist or translator, this this took a few attempts before I could really say I enjoyed it. The description of the church , the story of the bells and the wilderness of the Norwegian land are beautiful and made me interested in finding out more about stave churches. The story seems to blend factual history with fiction. The story of clashing old with the new and the character at the helm of this battle is Astrid. We see her fall for the new/ the exotic but her opinion changed when faced with the reality that her past could be destroyed. I'm interested to see how this book will continue. A very good story that any historical fiction reader would enjoy.

This was a mesmerising read set in Norway. Linking back centuries, the death of two co-joined twins inspires their father to melt all his valuable silver to line two bells which our hung in the small community stave church. The bells form the background and link in this story, which focuses on Astrid a descendant of the bell donors. In 1879 a new church pastor is appointed who seeks to move the church and its bells to Dresden and in its place build a modern comfortable church for this remote community. He appoints a young architect to oversee the move. The story of Astrid and her aspirations, together with her attraction and relationships with both the pastor and architect form the essence of this story. It is a true delight to read. I cannot wait for part 2

The Bell in the Lake was one that I requested on a whim after getting an email about it, because there was something about the cover that just called to me, and I am glad that I did because it was a beautifully atmospheric read that ensnared me from the very beginning.
This book was that wonderful blend of historical detail, traditions and folklore contrasted against the swell of rising modernity, and beneath all that was the very human stories of the local populace in a period of change. It was a slow-paced book and set the foundations for a sweeping story across a broad canvas, and it did so beautifully. There was a fascinating level of historical detail, especially with regards to the Stave Churches, but also of rural life – both social and economic – of that time, and even better it never lost sight of the fact that this was a historical novel and instead used that basis in fact to build some truly vivid descriptions that pulled you firmly into the world.
The characters were wonderfully complex, vividly real and alive in this world caught between the past and the future, ancient versus modern, religion and folklore. You could easily imagine meeting each one of them, no matter how brief their appearance was. Astrid was a fantastic character, feisty and questioning, and you can’t help but become invested in her search for her place in this world, caught even more in the middle than the village itself was, she’s our key to the heart of the storm, and her story was incredibly powerful. I also enjoyed Kai and Gerhad as characters, and they were both a wonderful counterpoint and complement to both Astrid, but the village itself, as they brought not just modernity but the wider world into collision with the old.
The Bell in the Lake was a powerful, beautiful story and set against the harshness of the cold frozen landscapes of the far north, in rural Norway it felt a world away. Yet Mytting’s writing is so vivid that it felt very much as though I had been dropped in that time and location, and that I was part of that landscape, that history, and honestly, I couldn’t get enough of his writing, and I would highly recommend this book, and I look forward to reading the rest in the series.

*Posting to blog www.beneathathousandskies.com and Goodreads - 09/10*

This Norwegian translation is a heartrending tale of love and grief set in the atmospheric yet secluded mountains, where a remote Norwegian town sleeps and gets on with its business, impervious to most of the goings on of the rest of the world, and still steeped in old Norse mythology, superstition, and handed-down legend. Life is hard in the village, due to the tremendous cold and difficulty in farming the high-up land, but for most of the villagers this daily struggle is so routine that they are too fatigued to wish for anything else. Not so Astrid Hekne, a spirited young girl who dreams of ‘more’, but isn’t sure how to get what she dreams of: travelling beyond her small village, and most of all avoiding the fate of all young women there: becoming a wife and bearing children to carry on the burdensome toil of farming. Astrid is part of a long line of the Hekne family who have lived in the village, and who paid for the churchs bells centuries ago in remembrance of a set of conjoined Hekne twins, women who had astounding abilities in weaving and around whom village legend now centres.

The main plot of the book centres around an ambitious new pastor who comes to the village and wants to erect a new modern church; and a young architectural student and artist who comes to draw and rescue the old one before it is demolished; his job is to relocate it to Dresden as an example of the disappearing Stave Churches of Norway, elaborate architectural gems from another era.

Astrid becomes involved with both men and their plans, as the fate of her village’s church and its unique bells, the centre of so much local legend, hangs in the balance. Astrid is determined to save the bells from being transported away from her home, but the bells also seem have a life of their own, ringing themselves. How the events surrounding the church bells change the course of Astrid’s life, and she theirs, unfolds.

I greatly enjoyed this book, which is part one of a trilogy; it was interesting to read about a completely different place and era and the historical traditions of Norway. I look forward to the continuation of the story. I have a sense from the ending where we might head next!

My thanks to #NetGalley and Quercus Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

#bookstagram #bookreviews #booklove #TheBellintheLake #LarsMytting #Historicalfiction #norwegianfiction #translastedfiction

In a land still touched by pagan religiosity a young pastor is forced to question his faith, a young architect risks his life for the love of a woman, and that woman seeks to keep the church bells which bear her name, and the names of her co-joined sisters, her ancestors, safe.
This is a fabulous combination of the realism of stark poverty and hardship, and the fantasy surrounding old beliefs and customs. It sparkles with originality. A breath-taking achievement.

Set in a small village in Norway from 1880, we follow the life of Astrid Hekne and the history of her family as it relates to the village church and the Sister Bells within it.
An atmospheric book set in a harsh, cold environment. A story of love, life, history and death. A moving book, well worth reading, very enjoyable.

I couldn't finish this book. I found myself drifting off when trying to get through it and it just wasn't for me.
I couldn't relate to any of the characters.

A stranger comes to this place, to carry out a plan to renew and replace, except this is a community which has a great deal invested in the past of Nordic myth, and they are to replace the church. The stranger is a talented student architect who is also a foreigner, an outsider. The pastor too has come from outside the village, and they both find a magnetic draw to a young woman who is not shy of voicing her opinions.
This is a beautifully written tale of love and longing, of people who don’t quite fit where they have landed, and of progress, beauty and devotion in a setting of rural hardship and a cold frozen landscape.

This is the first book in a new triology.
It is set in Norway, 1880 in a small village at the end of a secluded valley. Astrid Henke is a young girl with dreams. Dreams of moving away, marrying and having children
Pastor Kai Schweigaard moves into the village with grand plans to demolish the pagan church and rebuild with a new church. The two bells in the church were given in memory by Astrid's family in memory of conjoined twins. They are said to have special powers.
Architecture student Gerhard Schönauer arrives in the village to document the removal of the church in order for it to be re-erected in Dresden. He is unlike anyone Astrid has met before.
Astrid has decisions to make but will it be the right choice and what part will the bells play?

The Bell in the Lake is filled with atmosphere, with fable and legend, sadness and redemption. Astrid Henke lives in Butangen, a remote district in Norway where her family have farmed the land for generations. Set in the nineteenth century, villagers have relied on superstitions and legends to make sense of events that are tragic or perplexing. Within her family, conjoined twins were born, and their father commissioned a set of bells in their memory when they died as young women. These were known as the Sister Bells, and they would toll, seemingly by themselves to warn of danger or disaster.

Kai, the local pastor is a young man, troubled by his growing passion for Astrid. The stave church is small and freezing and he wants to commission a new church that will provide the space and comfort that is sadly lacking. But the bells do not want to be moved.

Gerhard is a German student of architecture and a wonderful sketch artist. When he is sent to Butangen to sketch the stave church before it is taken down, he does not expect to fall in love. But he begins a love affair with Astrid that leaves her with child.

As the lives of these three characters intertwine, there is tragedy ahead. The pain of unrequited love, betrayal, death and secrecy. Strange apparitions, and an accident that changes the course of history. The Bell in the Lake is beautifully written and transports the reader to a different time, and a different place.

This book was unlike any I've written in a long time. Drew me in and was wonderfully written. Historical, romance, drama and magical all at the same time. Would recommend if you fancy a change of pace.

Astrid Hekne has already declined two proposals of marriage. Having been raised in the remote village of Butangen in Norway in the 1860s, she believes life has more to offer than becoming a farmer's wife. Headstrong and eager to learn of the world beyond her isolated valley, she dreams of travel and new experiences.

In 1880, two strangers come to Butangen, and both find the enigmatic Astrid intriguing. Can Astrid be persuaded to accept either the new Pastor Kai Schweigaard or the German student architecture Gerhard Schönauer as a husband?

Pastor Kai Schweigaard is keen to banish the traditional beliefs rooted in paganism that still persist among his congregation. His aim is to demolish the village's old wooden church and replace it with a modern building more befitting of his enlightened modes of worship. Whereas Gerhard Schönauer's mission is to sketch and record the magnificence of the past, and his mission is to preserve the constituent parts of the dismantled 700-year-old stave church so it may be reassembled in Dresden.

Astrid finds Pastor Kai Schweigaard a willing source to feed her fascination of life beyond Butangen, but she is also beguiled by tales of streetlights in Dresden where a person might walk in the light at night. However, both men pose a threat to the Hekne family heritage, the two Sister Bells which have rung in the church tower since the sixteenth century, donated to the church by Astrid's ancestors.

Tapping into traditional Norwegian folklore, this English translation of the original Scandinavian bestseller transports the reader in distance and time to a world where the gathering pace of progress beyond the isolated valley in which Butangen nestles offers much, but also has the potential to inflict great suffering. I was instantly drawn into the world of harsh Winters and Norse legends, and of the simmering tension between the three main characters.

This beautifully written story held me captive throughout. I'll definitely be adding Lars Mytting's other novels to my reading list.

I loved this story set in a region of Norway that I visited in 2006. I didn't know that until I looked up Gudbransdal and realised that we drove through the area to get just north of Ringebu. Having visited Ringebu stave church I was able to picture the church in this book and also the beautiful surrounding mountains, valleys and lakes. The story is engaging with strongly drawn characters, and Lars Mytting makes good use of legends and folklore. I also thought that the translation was very good - it flowed well, with no hiccoughs. I hope the other books in the trilogy are translated into English so that I can follow the story of the Sister Bells further. With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review an e-ARC of this title.

Such beautiful story telling. This story is told with a real sense of warmth and reminiscent of how stories have always been told and passed down through the generations. The story is intricately woven with a rich seam of words mixed with myths and legends. It is a story of family, and love. It is such a simple story, just a little bit sad but perfectly and beautifully told. And I feel all the better for having read it.

A pair of Siamese twins, joined from the hip down, are born into the powerful and wealthy Hekne farming family in a remote region of Norway. It’s a special event in the family especially when the fame of the girls, Halfrid and Gunhil, weaving talents spread far and wide. A hekneweave is highly prized and commands high prices.
But they are destined to die young, one after the other, and their father, Eirik, has two church bells cast in their memory. They are known as the Sister bells although Eirik calls them the Daughter bells until his dying day.
But now roughly 700 years later in 1880 the once prosperous Heknes have fallen on hard times. The substantial group of farms have been reduced to a single farmstead in the village of Butangen. They are ‘as good as bankrupt’ as one character comments and Butangen is a poor village where some of its inhabitants cannot attend the local church as they have to share shoes. The legend of the Sister bells has almost been lost in the mists of history except in some of the villagers memories.

Astrid Hekne, aged 20, has vague dreams of a life beyond the village. She has already rejected two suitors as she knows what her life will be like with either of them. It will be’ into the farm, up into the bed, then out into the kitchen’ for the rest of her life.

As she sits in the freezing village church listening to one of the new pastor Kir Schweigaard’s lengthy sermons she wonders what life would be like as his wife. They are drawn to each other although he is already betrothed. As the service finishes due to snow falling on the congregation she tries to wake her elderly neighbour, Klara, who is sitting beside her. Suddenly, she realises to her horror that Klara has frozen to death. Something has to be done.

But Kir has already made a momentous decision. He has sold the village church with the Sister bells to the Royal family of Saxony and it will be taken down and transported to Dresden. The Butangen church is considered to be such a fine example of a Norwegian stave church that they paid him handsomely for it. The new church will be warm and he will be able to hold proper funeral services. Kir is an outsider and unaware of the significance of the bells and the church in the local community.

He has no idea of the consequences that his well-meaning action will have on the village and his relationship with Astrid. It will send the Sister bells far away from their home and the church with all its history and ancient Norse decoration will go to a strange land. And it will also bring a rival for Astrid’s affections, Gerhad Schonauer, an architecture student from Dresden. He is sent to draw the church, to supervise its taking down, being packed up and sent on its way to its new home.

However, Gerhard is immediately seduced by the blamoket or bluedark of Norway and his first sight of the church and Astrid. Can he offer her more in life than Kir?

All three of them have ambitions in life and to move on but which will Astrid choose? And most importantly will Astrid succeed in her daring plan to save the Sister bells and keep them in the village or will one man’s jealousy thwart it?

This is the first book in a planned trilogy and is an English translation from the Norwegian. I loved its atmosphere and its skilful blend of folk tales and legends against the backdrop of an impoverished village and a new pastor keen to bring modernity in the shape of a new church to them. As it is being dismantled Gerhard realises that although it is ancient it stands on a much older, pagan site. The Norse faith with its spectacular visual imagery took its place beside Catholicism but this will all be lost with the new church. It will vanish forever along with the Sister bells. Kai finds the Sisters coffin as the crypt is being cleared out and doesn’t know the significance of it. They are buried in the churchyard without a marker.

I also liked the Sister bells being characters in their own right as when Gerhard sense that they’re giving him a warning on his arrival. When Astrid goes up into the belfry to see them it’s a very eerie scene as the twins mother is reputed to haunt it. She hands over responsibility to Astrid, as their descendant, to protect them. Later Astrid visits the village midwife for advice and sees two young men approaching who vanish on the road. These were atmospheric scenes.

The book also attracted me as I am aware of the legends surrounding church bells as, for example, their role in driving out evil spirits. From the beginning of the book I was hooked on its atmosphere and the skilful combination of Norse folk tales and the religion that had taken it over. I was intrigued as to what dark forces Kai might have unleashed by his well-meaning act. He sees it as a decrepit old church and is unaware of its beauty or heritage. And what of the legendary hekneweave of the Day of Judgement which has been missing for centuries?

The old church was seen a possible buttress against evil forces and several accidents take place during its demolition but ‘strange occurrences of this kind were not uncommon when they disturbed old buildings.’ There may be consequences to come…….

The descriptions of the landscape of the changing seasons in the village and its surroundings are well observed and contrasted with the harshness of the villagers lives.

I am already looking forward to Book 2!

My thanks to MacLeHose Press, Quercus Books and Netgalley for an advance preview copy.

Set in Norway in 1880 an excellent historical fiction read. The characters are well defined, the setting described well of the 19th century Norway and an interesting plot. I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. Fans of historical fiction would like this book. Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the 1880s in the tough landscape of Norway, this is the story of an isolated village, its past and its church.
In many ways this is a beautiful book. It is full of rich description of the life of the Norwegians in this isolated village. The hardship, the poverty, the cruel weather and a people caught in the past. The death of a woman, Klara, during a church service really bought home the intense cold & the harshness of these people's life. The writing was excellent.
I also loved the characters. Astrid the daughter of a farmer who yearned for more from her life than the usual marriage to a farmer & the continuity of their life. She wanted to go out & explore the world and learn about its wonders & the life outside the village. This is highlighted with the new pastor and the artist both of whom come from elsewhere. Her relationship with both of these men is interesting, if slow.
Unfortunately I did feel that slow was the significant word about this book. The story just seemed to drag and not progress for chapter after chapter. Yes, I can appreciate beautiful writing but I do want the story to be gripping as well. I really struggled with this book for that reason.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.