KirstenL4W

I’ve found that the best way for me to unwind at the end of the day is to read. It’s usually the last thing I do before falling asleep for the night. It helps me get out of my own head so that I can relax enough to fall asleep.

I recently finished reading The Emigrants. It’s a 4-book series about Swedish emigrants who leave their homeland and settle in America hoping for a better life. I was first introduced to this series by a friend from Sweden, who said it would help me understand my own history better. My great-grandparents came from Sweden, though about 60 years later than these books take place, and they weren’t farmers like the Nilsson family in the book.

It took me a few tries to get through the book. I tried when I first got it, and would then pick it up every few years. I think it took me about 10 years before I was able to sit down and really push myself to get through the entire book. Once I did, I wanted to read more. Once I got into it, I really wanted to find out what happened to these characters and how they fared on this journey they embarked upon.

The first book, The Emigrants, tells of the life that the main characters, Karl Oskar and his wife Kristina have on their farm in Sweden. It tells of the hard times they have as they begin their family and are met with drought and the resulting starvation. Karl Oskar’s younger brother Robert, full of wanderlust and not willing to live a life of being anyone’s servant, as would be his fate in Sweden, tells Kark Oskar of a great land called America. After suffering a heart-wrenching tragedy, Karl Oskar decides to move his family to America so that they can have better opportunities. Various friends and relatives hear of the plan and join the party, so early in April 1850, the party of 16 Swedish emigrants board a ship bound for America. The second half of the book tells of the rough journey they all experience.

The second book, Unto a Good Land, tells of the trials and tribulations the settlers have as the make their way towards Minnesota Territory, stake out their land, and start to set up home. It’s interesting to read of the culture shock they experience as they settle into their new homes.

The third book, The Settlers, is about how the emigrants get along after having been in the new land for a few years and the successes and failures they have. Their community begins to grow, and more Swedes begin moving into the area.

The final book, The Last Letter Home, finishes up by telling how Karl Oskar’s children have grown up and started their own families.

Except for a few small facts, which are outlined in the introduction to the books, I’d say these books are historical fiction - the places the emigrants end up in are real, and their stories are the same stories that many other settlers from Sweden have. My family didn’t go west, instead preferring to settle in the NYC area. My great-grandmother’s aunt had a boarding house in Brooklyn, where my great-grandmother worked when she arrived, and where she met my great-grandfather when he rented a room their. They lived in Brooklyn until the early 1920s, when they moved to the Plainfield, NJ area, which is where my grandmother and mother grew up, and where I still have some family. My family didn’t work the land, like the families in the books, but I took great interest in the character’s experiences. I’m sure that the cultural issues outlined in the books were very similar to the ones my family experienced.

Reading these books made me feel closer to my roots, and as my friend told me, they did help me understand my great-grandparents’ experience. Even if you’re not Swedish, or not descended from immigrants, I’d recommend these books just as highly as I’d recommend something from Steinbeck.

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