At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the poverty-stricken
Swedish region of Småland, young Valter, the son of a soldier, explores
the world around him and watches his older brothers emigrate to America.
In this novel of the life of a farm boy, first published in three
volumes in 1946, Vilhelm Moberg sensitively explores his own
childhood.
When Valter, a boy with great imagination, describes the exciting things
he sees so vividly, he is punished for lying, so he learns to write his
stories down instead. He willingly leaves school and helps support his
family by working in lumber camps and a glass factory. His father's ill
health and death bring even harder times. Through all his toil, he
debates whether to honor his father's wish and remain in Sweden to
support his mother.
With gentle irony and a loving knowledge of the landscape, the people,
and the larger issue of class struggle, Moberg offers American readers a
deeply moving view of the other side of Swedish immigration.