The year is 1903, and twenty-two years have passed since parish pastor Kai Schweigaard returned to Butangen in Gudbrandsdalen with Astrid Hekne’s newborn son Jehans on his lap. Facing a well-kept grave outside the new church, he is tormented by his old betrayal, which led to several deaths and the separation of the two powerful church bells. The bells were cast in memory of two conjoined sisters in Astrid’s family, two mythical weavers. Schweigaard becomes obsessed with finding the ancient Hekne tapestry, made by the sisters and lost for centuries, hoping it will show how he can atone for his misdeeds and reunite the bells.
Jehans has grown up and lives in modest conditions on a homestead farm, ostracized by his own family. He instead seeks the mountains, where he enjoys freedom, fishing, and reindeer hunting. One August morning, Jehans kills a massive reindeer bull, and in the same moment encounters a mysterious hunter.
The Reindeer Hunters is a grand story of a country headed for a new era, of land clearing and futile toiling, of taming waterfalls and lighting the first electrical spark in the deep, dark, rural nights, and about the great European war where brother faces brother.
The Sister Bells Trilogy Vol. 2
