The Road to Jerusalem
ABOUT
THE BOOK
The first volume of the phenomenal bestselling Swedish Crusades trilogy. An epic tale of courage, of Holy War, of an emotional and physical journey and a hero in Arn Magnusson well worthy of telling.
In 1150, Arn Magnusson is born to an aristocratic Swedish family and spends his childhood and education at the Cistercian monastery of Varnhem where he is taught the best of spiritual and worldly learning, as well as being trained to become a master archer and swordsman by the giant Brother Guilbert, a former knight.
At seventeen, equipped to become a monk and a warrior, Arn returns home, a young man and yet an innocent in the ways of the world. Two sisters cross his path: he is seduced by one and falls deeply in love with the other, Cecilia. In loving two sisters he has committed a crime punishable by both civil and clerical authorities, and he is sentenced to serve twenty years as a Knight Templar in the Holy Land.
The remaining two novels in this trilogy are The Knights Templar, which recounts Arn’s experiences as an occupation officer in Palestine, and The Kingdom at the End of the Road, when Arn leaves Jerusalem and returns to a Sweden torn apart by feudal infighting, and to Cecilia, the love of his youth.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Anna
Paterson
- Dr Anna Paterson translates from Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and German into English and writes literary journalism in English and Swedish. She used to work as a medical academic, specialising in experimental and clinical neuroscience. Since retiring, she has translated twenty-six books – a mixture of literary fiction and non-fiction – published mainly in the UK and the USA but also in Australia and Norway. She works for several English-language literary magazines. Between 2010 and 2015, she was reviews editor at Swedish Book Review. Most of Dr Paterson’s non-medical writing has been book reviews and articles on literary topics. She has also written a book about landscape, identity and environmental awareness in Scotland: Scotland’s Landscape: Endangered Icon. She is married to a Scot and lives in the Scottish countryside.
- Dr Anna Paterson translates from Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and German into English and writes literary journalism in English and Swedish. She used to work as a medical academic, specialising in experimental and clinical neuroscience. Since retiring, she has translated twenty-six books – a mixture of literary fiction and non-fiction – published mainly in the UK and the USA but also in Australia and Norway. She works for several English-language literary magazines. Between 2010 and 2015, she was reviews editor at Swedish Book Review. Most of Dr Paterson’s non-medical writing has been book reviews and articles on literary topics. She has also written a book about landscape, identity and environmental awareness in Scotland: Scotland’s Landscape: Endangered Icon. She is married to a Scot and lives in the Scottish countryside.