Written by Hej Everyone. it’s Carly.
Out of the hundreds of books I read in my 14 years of living (almost 14 years, that is), There is one book series I really want to give a shout-out to. This series has changed my life, and I would like to make an article dedicated to it.
The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg.
I have said multiple times on Kidztalk and Kidznet that The Emigrants is a great book series. For those who are unfamiliar with it, I am going to write about it here.
Before I start, I do want to say that I recommend this series for 13+, so yeah.
The Books
The Series has four books. The first book is The Emigrants, which was released in 1949 in Sweden and 1951 in the United States.
The series is later followed by Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, and The Last Letter Home.
The series tells the story of Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson. They are a couple in their early twenties who lived in a farming community in the province of Småland, Sweden, in the 1840s.
Their life in Sweden was very complicated. They had a very hard time trying to earn money, they had to deal with the harsh weather, sickness and conflict with other neighboors.
After the death of their 4-year-old daughter Anna, the Nilssons, along with some of their family members and friends, decided to leave Sweden.
They embarked on a 2-month journey on a wooden ship where they still dealt with problems.
In the spring of 1850, they finally arrived at their desired destination, Lindström, Minnesota.
In the latter half of the book, We can see “letters” written by Karl-Oskar to his relatives in Sweden, to which they respond. Despite the story’s realism, the characters in The Emigrants are fictional.
Other Adaptions
If reading isn’t your thing but you’re still interested in The World of The Emigrants Novels, There are other adaptions of the books.
In 1972, a movie was released based on the books. This movie was called “The Emigrants.”
The Movie was released worldwide, but in Swedish with English subtitles. You can watch this movie on YouTube for free with ads (And Yes, The Movie is rated PG.)
Two years later, in 1974, the sequel to the movie was released. This movie was called The New Land and was inspired by the latter two books in the series. From what I know, you can’t basically watch the movie.
In the same year, a TV show spinoff was released. The show was also called The New Land, and it focused on the lives of the Nilssen Kids (Johan, Märta Harald, Kristina, and Karl’s kids) as adults.
However, the show was later canceled due to unpopularity, and only the trailer and theme song are still surviving on YouTube.
Another more recent adaptation was a musical. This musical is called Kristina Från Duvemåla and was released in 1996.
The musical mostly focused on Kristina’s life rather than both Karl and Kristina.
ABBA wrote and performed it in Sweden, Finland, The United States, Norway, and The United Kingdom.
My favorite song is Du Måste Finnas (You Have to Be There)
The final adaption, and the newest one, is the 2021 Movie adaption. The movie can only be watched on Viaplay, a Nordic streaming channel. Unlike the adaptions from the 1970s, This movie covers all four books in a 2-hour movie.
It’s not really an adaptation, but there have also been museums dedicated to the series. The House of Emigrants in Karlshamm, Sweden, focuses on the real-life inspiration behind the books.
In Lindström, Minnesota, there are various references to the books ( I will not cover them here because I did a full article on Lindström here.
Thanks for reading!
This is long.
Plz Rate.
–Carly
