The year 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the first organized Norwegian emigration to the United States. To mark this bicentennial and celebrate our region's deep connection to Norway and Scandinavia, we are pleased to announce that Norwegian author Lars Mytting's The Bell in the Lake has been chosen as the book for the 2025 One Book, One Community reading program. The program is organized through a collaborative partnership of the Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo public libraries, Concordia College’s Carl B. Ylvisaker Library, Minnesota State University Moorhead’s Livingston Lord Library, North Dakota State University Libraries and the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County.
Set in a remote part of Norway in 1879, Mytting’s novel, the first in a trilogy, explores the clash of past and future. When young pastor Kai Schweigaard arrives in the isolated village of Butangen, a place steeped in tradition and home to an ancient stave church with its legendary Sister Bells, he encounters Astrid Hekne, a woman longing for a more modern life. His plans to modernize the church and the arrival of a German architect ignite a conflict between Butangen's old ways and the promise of the future. Adding to the tension is a long-lost tapestry made by twins who lived hundreds of years ago. People believed it could tell the future, predicting something terrible. Now, strange coincidences make some wonder if history is repeating itself.
Lars Mytting is one of Norway’s most beloved, in-demand and widely read authors. His trilogy based on the Sister Bells legend and the Hekne family saga (The Bell in the Lake, The Reindeer Hunters, The Night of the Scourge) has been compared to the works of Sigrid Undset in both scope and significance within modern Norwegian literary history. Mytting’s thorough research and vivid, powerful storytelling in this trilogy captures the essence of Norwegian heritage.
This year’s One Book, One Community reading program launches in September and features a variety of related events including book discussions, presentations and films. The event series includes an author visit with Mytting on September 29 at the Knutson Campus Center Centrum at Concordia College. Further details about the author visit will be announced at a later date.
Copies of the book will be available for checkout in several formats at each of the participating libraries. For book club kits, contact Lori West at LWest@fargolibrary.org. For a list of related events and resources, visit any participating library’s website or visit 1book1community.org after August 1.
In its 14th year, the One Book, One Community reading program centers on the community-wide reading of a single book and is dedicated to creating a shared conversation along with a range of related events and activities for residents of all ages.
All One Book, One Community events are free and open to the public. This program is made possible in part with funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and supported by Concordia Cultural Events, Friends of the Fargo Public Library, Friends of the West Fargo Public Library and the Friends of the Moorhead Library.