The Werewolf is a boldly drawn novel of the tyranny of love over men and women and the unending trials of strength between good and evil in human nature. Its main characters are of heroic stature yet deeply flawed, moving against the backdrop of Norwegian society from World War I to the 1960s.
Over the novel broods the symbol of the Werewolf, which for Sandemose represents all the forces hostile to a full, free life the thirst for power over others lives, the lust to destroy what cannot be possessed or controlled. In their private encounters with the Werewolf, few can claim total...

Long under the cultural domination of Denmark and the political hegemony of Sweden, Norway first defined itself through its literature and continues to do so to our day. A History of Norwegian Literature reviews the complex role literature has played in Norway since runic times. Beginning with rock carvings five millennia old, Norwegian literature first came to flower with the Norse poets of the ninth century, who chronicled the heroism of Viking explorers and conquerers. The authors describe the subsequent progression of Norwegian literature through the middle ages and the baroque to Ludvig...