My Men
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Based on the true story of Norwegian maid turned Midwestern farmwife Belle Gunness, the first female serial killer in American history, My Men is the radically empathetic and disquieting portrait of a woman capable of ecstatic love and gruesome cruelty. Among thousands of other Norwegian immigrants seeking freedom, Brynhild Størset emigrated to the American Upper Midwest in the late nineteenth century, changing her name and her life. As Bella, later Belle Gunness, she came in search of fortune and faith but, most of all, love. In pursuit of her American Dream, Kielland’s Belle grows increasingly alienated, ruthless, and perversely compelling.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Damion
Searls
Damion Searls has translated more than fifty books of classic modern literature, most recently Thomas Mann’s New Selected Stories, Jon Fosse’s Septology, and Bambi. His own writing includes fiction, poetry, criticism, The Inkblots—a history of the Rorschach Test and biography of its creator, Hermann Rorschach—and The Philosophy of Translation, forthcoming.
Damion Searls has translated more than fifty books of classic modern literature, most recently Thomas Mann’s New Selected Stories, Jon Fosse’s Septology, and Bambi. His own writing includes fiction, poetry, criticism, The Inkblots—a history of the Rorschach Test and biography of its creator, Hermann Rorschach—and The Philosophy of Translation, forthcoming.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
An intelligent twist on classic Nordic noir. The book retells the true story of Belle Gunness, the Norwegian serial murderess. Belle found her future male partner through the marriage advertisements in the local papers in the US at the turn of the 20th century. Kielland gives this horrific crime story a poetic and sublime language that strikes the reader with its precision and originality. The author fills our imagination with the most grusome pictures without being explicit in her language. What is especially captivating is the way Kielland unfolds the complex psyche of the main character without trying to excuse her actions. The book was critically acclaimed when it was originally published in 2021. Victoria Kjelland is one of the most distinctive young voices in the Norwegian literary milieu, and we strongly believe that more readers will find this book both gripping and strikingly original.