First Comes Summer, Maria Hesselager
First Comes Summer, Maria Hesselager
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First Comes Summer

Author: Maria Hesselager, Martin Aitken

Narrator: Elizabeth Evans

Unabridged: 4 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 04/11/2023


Synopsis

The spellbinding story of a young woman’s dangerous passion as it plays out over the course of an eerie summer

In their remote Viking settlement, Folkví and her brother, Áslakr, have always been close—unnaturally close. They’ve grown more intimate still as Folkví learns her shaman mother’s craft, as men regard her with newly devouring eyes. Then illness carries off their parents, and the nest of home is shattered. Áslakr sets off on his first expedition, abandoning Folkví to the dark of an endless winter. When he returns, he’s done the unthinkable: He’s found someone else to love.

Sick with grief, Folkví rages to the gods where they sit at the foot of an ancient tree, contemplating the twisted passions of humans that play out in the face of an ever-approaching end of days. Will none of them save her now? Very well, Folkví will save herself. The wedding date is set. But first comes a fateful summer. . . 

Deeply unsettling and brilliantly imagined, First Comes Summer captures the terror of losing the world you’ve always known—and the uncanny extremes to which you might go to hold on to it.

About The Author

Maria Hesselager has won and been shortlisted for several Scandinavian prizes. First Comes Summer is her first novel. She lives in Copenhagen. Martin Aitken has translated numerous novels from Danish and Norwegian. He received the 2019 PEN America Translation Prize, among many other honors.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Michał

Mnie się bardzo podobało. Nie sprzeda się wcale xD......more

Goodreads review by kyle

when ur circle small but yall are crazy......more

This is a wacky one. Folkvi is a shaman in a Viking village and she’s very, very, very close with her brother Áslakr. Yes, I mean intimately close. Áslakr leaves for his first expedition and comes back a man… and with news she wished she never heard. The writing is very lyrical and it somehow created......more

150 stron, a emocje i namiętności na miarę opasłego tomiszcza. W dodatku namiętności trudne do zaspokojenia, niemożliwe do zaspokojenia. Folkvi jest młoda i piękna, po matce odziedziczyła pewne zdolności magiczne, przydatne także przy porodach. Cieszy się szacunkiem w osadzie wikingów, jest też obiek......more

Goodreads review by Jens

Jeg undrede mig længe over, hvad det var den her historie egentlig ville mig, og jeg var flere gange ved at stoppe. Men måske anede jeg det alligevel til sidst, og det bliver det hurtigt virkelig nemt at komme til at sige for meget om. Men ja... Jeg hørte den som lydbog, men jeg tror, jeg skal have f......more


Quotes

Praise for First Comes Summer:

“[A] sparse and spellbinding novel. . . . Hesselager’s deft writing throughout this mysterious story continuously unsettles in the best way possible, prompting readers to lean in even as things spiral out of control.” —Chicago Review of Books

“Poetic, enigmatic. . . . [and] remarkable. . . . It is mysterious and utterly compelling.”  —Center for Fiction

“A magical book about love and death and the slender, enduring line that connects the two.”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“This lucent, poetic, mysterious novel takes us deep into the shrouded past, into an ancient world that is both utterly alien and achingly, recognizably human. First Comes Summer is a miniature masterpiece.”  —Dan Chaon, National Book Award finalist and New York Times-bestselling author of Sleepwalk and Among the Missing

“A terrifying tale about the special madness of obsessive love. Masterfully told, with an ending that will leave you speechless.” —Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor and The Hunger

“Marvelously imagined and fiercely real, First Comes Summer has a tender brutality to it that feels timeless and fresh at the same time. Engrossing, primal, and very very beautiful.”—Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun and You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine