In the Wilderness

After Ingunn’s death, Olav remains master of Hestviken but loses the purpose that sustained him through exile and marriage. He travels abroad on trading business and in England is drawn towards a married woman who resembles the young Ingunn, forcing him to confront how memory, desire and self-deception have shaped his life. He returns to Norway without resolving the hidden murder that excludes him from confession and communion, while his children Eirik and Cecilia begin to form adult lives under the weight of his silence.

The private crisis is interrupted by war in 1308, when Duke Eric Magnusson invades the lands of his father-in-law, King Haakon V, and besieges Akershus. Olav joins the resistance, experiences the rout of local forces and fights in the campaign around the fortress. He survives severe wounds that leave him permanently scarred. The novel uses travel, trade and warfare to strip away his public strength, returning him to Hestviken older, disfigured and still unable to make the confession on which he believes his salvation depends.