Review by New York Times Review
THE GENIUS OF JANE AUSTEN: Her Love of Theatre and Why She Works in Hollywood, by Paula Byrne. (Harper Perennial, paper, $16.99.) Playwrights and actors who questioned and mocked social norms helped Austen learn to focus her material, make it amusing and give it critical punch, this insightful study shows. THE WIDOW NASH, by Jamie Harrison. (Counterpoint, $26.) This debut novel by Jim Harrison's daughter features a clever and adventurous protagonist who must determine what happened to her father's fortune after his suicide. On the run from her brutal ex-fiancé, his business partner, she leaves a cross-country train in Montana to remake herself as the widow Nash. THE UNDERGROUND RIVER, by Martha Conway. (Touchstone, $26.99.) In this suspenseful novel, a young seamstress for a theater company that travels the Ohio River on a flatboat becomes involved in ferrying infants born into bondage from one side of the river to the other. SCANDINAVIANS: In Search of the Soul of the North, by Robert Ferguson. (Overlook, $35.) Ferguson, a British expatriate who has lived for 30 years in Norway, has written a delightfully freeroaming exploration of the myth of the brooding Scandinavian. He provides an engaging, layered look into a complex culture. JANE AUSTEN AT HOME, by Lucy Worsley. (St. Martin's, $29.99.) A BBC presenter ebulliently describes Austen's many homes and residences, and speculates on her motives and emotions. Her thesis is that the thread that runs through Austen's novels is a longing for a safe haven, a place of her own. WELCOME: A Mo Willems Guide for New Arrivals, written and illustrated by Mo Willems. (Hyperion, $15.99; all ages.) Designed as a gag instruction manual for the ride a baby is about to take through life, this book appeals to pre-verbal infants at the same time as it offers wise and reassuring words to parents. The witty graphic icons help. QUESTIONS ASKED, by Jostein Gaarder. Illustrated by Akin Duzakin. Translated by Don Bartlett. (Elsewhere, $14; ages 5 and up.) This gem by a Norwegian novelist, illustrated with sweet, spectral art, is a simple list of big questions all of us should ask about life and how best to live it. JUST FLY AWAY, by Andrew McCarthy. (Algonquin, $17.95; ages 12 and up.) A 15-year-old girl is outraged to learn that she has a half brother living in the same town, the result of her father's brief affair. The story takes unexpected turns, and displays real insight into the way adolescents withdraw emotionally. MIGHTIER THAN THESWORD, by K. J. Parker. (Subterranean; e-book, $4.99; limited-edition cloth, $40.) Afantasy empire is under attack by mysterious pirates in this intricate whodunit, full of rich characters. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 30, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Ferguson's stroll through more than one thousand years of Scandinavian history offers an enchanting glimpse into the region's political, economic, social, and cultural past. Personal history (British-born, Ferguson emigrated to Norway in 1983) and inviting prose (he's published books on the Vikings and Ibsen and is a radio dramatist) anchor the book's ambitious scope. For example, the author's habit of spending Saturday afternoons with his philosopher friend opens the chapter on Kierkegaard, and much of the section on Ibsen is written in the form of a play. Early in the book, Ferguson introduces the reader to the notion of Viking-era blind stones, that is, stones originally covered in writing and images that time has erased. These artifacts, about which little is known, set the tone for Ferguson's book by introducing the sense of mystery that makes history so exciting. If the notion of a singular and coherent Scandinavian soul seems dubious, Ferguson convincingly argues for a regional identity that is based less on shared climate than on centuries of land exchange, a common religion, and frequent travel akin to the author's own.--Taft, Maggie Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In a free-wheeling love letter to the essence of Scandinavia, Ferguson (Life Lessons from Kierkegaard) takes readers on a leisurely jaunt through the collective, interconnected histories of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. This is not a dry, exclusively historical narrative; rather, it is part oral history and part a narrative of personal experience. The U.K.-born Ferguson interweaves tales from more than 30 years of living in Norway and professions of his passion for Scandinavia with accounts of prominent historical episodes and interviews he has conducted. This "isn't, strictly speaking, a history so much as a journey, a discursive and digressive stroll through the last thousand years of Scandinavian culture in search of the soul of the north," he explains. Whether he's waxing poetic about the works and impact of playwright Henrik Ibsen, examining how differently each Scandinavian country acted and reacted during WWII, or contemplating the mystique and strength of Scandinavia's women, Ferguson combines the factual and the intimate. This characteristic of the book keeps things from becoming too dry, though it also results in a work that is sprawling and overly broad. It's as if in searching for the soul of the North, Ferguson's writing lost its way. Passionate yet prone to distraction, Ferguson delivers an idiosyncratic look at Scandinavia. Agent: David Miller, Rogers, Coleridge, and White. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An eye-opening history of a region and culture "vibrant with people, noise, chance, life."In this valuable studynot merely a recounting of the stereotypes regarding Vikings and their rampaging waysaward-winning writer and translator Ferguson (Kierkegaard: Great Thinkers on Modern Life, 2015, etc.) searches for the deepest soul of Scandinavia, traversing three countries (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) once united under a single monarch. The author also includes Iceland, a former territory of Denmark, then Norway, and home of the purest form of their shared ancient language, Old Norse. Much of this lucid book unfolds like a series of short stories, tales told Ferguson by friends, literary connections, and even strangers. In 1969, at age 20, the British author took off on a lark to Sweden and Denmark, and, despite some misadventures, his love for Scandinavia was born. He moved to Norway in 1983 and has lived there ever since. Playing tour guide for his wife, Ferguson exuberantly relates his explorations. Searching deeper proves difficult, as many of the histories of Scandinavia were written by her enemies. The Vikings were in everyone's history books, of course, and while the classic portrayal of the Norsemen reflected a bellicose nature, the author rejects that view. The Vikings had great respect for the rule of law and strong rites to which they adhered faithfully. What Ferguson is really searching for is the essence of their psyche and how the idea of the melancholy, brooding man replaced the specter of the bloodthirsty conqueror. Different theories cross his path, such as the vast loneliness of the landscape; however, at the same time, that loneliness has produced so many geniuses in a variety of fields. Ferguson also astutely examines the idea that history isn't always what you think it was; it depends on the recorder, and the past can change its shape. A delightful history in which the author truly captures "the soul of the North." Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
