The year is 1859. Brita Caisa is alone with two children. To give them the security they deserve, she straps on her skis and sets out on the long journey from Finland to Norway to find a man with whom she can build a safe life. Along the way, something happens that should never have happened.
Brita Caisa is a woman who leaves, a woman who dares to stand up against the judgement of others. The Knife in the Fire is a gripping story of work and love, strong solidarity and free eroticism, of the individual and the authorities.
Brita Caisa Seipajærvi was Ingeborg Arvola’s great-great-grandmother. Arvola writes in a way that lets you smell the blood after the reindeer slaughter, taste the cloudberries, feel the cold of the snow and the warmth of the fire. She also brings Kven and Sami culture to the fore, giving us a unique portrait of a history that deserves a greater place in our collective memory.
As the novel is brought to the stage across the country by the Norwegian National Touring Theatre (Riksteatret) and Kvääniteatteri, star director Cecilie Mosli (Grey’s Anatomy, Three Wishes for Cinderella, The Snow Sister) brings Arvola’s grand epic to life, starring Lena Kristin Ellingsen, Ivar Beddari, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Arthur Hakalahti, Bernt Bjørn and Pernille Sandøy.
Praise for the novel:
“Wonderful and magnificent.”
VG (6)
“Such intense yearning for love – and equally steaming passion – is something I haven’t read about in a Norwegian novel for a long time.”
NRK
“A compelling and historically interesting novel (…) Can be devoured in one eager gulp.”
Dagbladet (5)
“All in all, Arvola writes really, really well. Insanely well, in fact. Like a dream you didn’t know you were carrying around.”
Berlingske (5)
“With an almost invisible hand, Arvola slips in details of time, place and setting that leave the reader far wiser than before.”
Aftenposten
“Love and sex of the forbidden kind, marriages that fall apart, parents and children torn apart, finances that collapse, a local community with plenty to gossip about […] above all, it is the forbidden attraction and love between Brita Caisa and the married Askan Mikko that sets the story ablaze.”
Klassekampen
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes (including intermission).