Rating

★★★☆☆

Category

literature

Read

2020-09-10

Pages

256

Some hilariously on point deliberately cliche scenes:

“While the burro was being loaded, James and Håkan went to the inn. Heads turned, several pairs of eyes looked up from froth-crowned mugs of ale, a dealing hand froze in mid-air, a light lingered too long in front of a cigar. The Irishman and the Swede also paused. Everyone stared at them. With the newcomers’ first step towards the counter, the patrons came back to life.”

“By the makeshift school, one woman had stopped churning butter, while another wiped her hands down on her apron, having just taken a Dutch oven off the fire, and yet a third, in the back, slowly and mechanically went on dyeing her yarn. All three women had their eyes fixed on the recently arrived group.”

Some good sentences: “It was a tedious journey that tested their patience more than their courage.” “Birds no longer flew in flocks – only a bird here and then, later, maybe, a bird there.”

but overall didn’t totally get into it