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The Reindeer Hunters is the second in a thrilling historical trilogy that began with The Bell in the Lake.
The year is 1903, and twenty-two years have passed since Astrid Hekne died in childbirth. Her son Jehans lives on a modest smallholding up in the hills near Butangen, having withdrawn from his community. He is drawn to freedom, to fishing and reindeer hunting, and one day meets a stranger over the body of a huge reindeer buck.
Outside the new church in Butangen, Pastor Kai Schweigaard still cares for Astrid Hekne’s grave. The village’s overworked priest is tormented by his old betrayal, which led to death and to the separation of two powerful church bells cast in memory of two sisters in Astrid’s family. Kai is set on finding an ancient tapestry made by the sisters – the Hekne Weave – in the hope that it will reveal how he can remedy his iniquities.
Conceived on an epic scale by Norway’s bestselling author, The Reindeer Hunters is a novel about love and bitter rivalries, sorrow and courage, about history and myth, and a country as it enters a new era, about the first electric light and the Great War in Europe, where brother stands against brother.
Translated from the Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin
Format: Paperback
Pages: 448
Imprint: MacLehose Press/Quercus
Publication date: 13/10/2022
Series: Sister Bells Trilogy v2
The Reindeer Hunters
By Lars Mytting
Review by Dave
I’ve read a few books over the years but every now and then something stands out as truly exceptional. This year it was the second novel in Lars Mytting’s The Bell in the Lake trilogy, called The Reindeer Hunters. It continues the series on beautifully – answering questions raised in the first book and leaving you hungry for the third and final instalment. It can be read as a standalone, but you always get more out of it having read the first. Set in 1903 in the same fictional village in Norway, the book tells of Pastor Kai Schweigaard wrestling with the consequences of his past. He becomes obsessed with finding the ancient tapestry of a Doomsday vision, believing it will be his redemption. The tapestry was woven in the 1600s by the conjoined twin sisters from the first book, given to the village church and lost at some point over the centuries. From Sixteen Trees of the Somme onwards, all Mytting’s books have had a profound hold over me. His writing is just so evocative, I felt cold reading it in a warm room. The plot is engrossing, but balanced out by many gentle, beautiful moments. It’s an intriguing tale of a punishing environment redeemed by moments of startling humanity. A magnificent story about love, sorrow, courage, and learning to embrace change. A trilogy to lose yourself in.
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