Hej Guys, It’s Carly.
My favorite book is The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg. Y’know, The book that is about Swedes who don’t like Sweden and die every 5 seconds. Yeah. That book. This is basically how I explain the book.
The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg but poorly explained by a 14-year old girl who knows more Nordic history than social skills
So we have this guy. Let’s say his name is Karl-Oskar Nilsson, and he is 19 years old. He lives in the Swedish village of Korpamoen. Karl is your average Swedish guy in the 1850s. He’s a farmer, He doesn't have money, and according to some theories he is related to Swedish royalty.
One day, Karl was doing Swedish Guy things with his dad (who was suffering from a leg injury) and his younger sister Lydia. But he saw a girl. The girl had beautiful blond hair and blue eyes and was just sitting down on a swing, just chilling. The Girl’s name is Kristina, and she is from Duvemåla.
Karl noticed Kristina was lonely, so he decided to quit farming and go up and say “hej” to her. Kristina fell in love with Karl and spent a lot of time together, which wasn’t approved by Kristina’s very religious family. (Karl and Kristina are both Christian, is that Kristina is more strict)
A few years later, Karl is 25 years old and Kristina is 23. They’re married and they have 4 kids. Anna, Johan, Märta (not to be confused with Karl’s mom) and Harald. Karl’s dad died from his leg injury, so Karl moved to Duvemåla to live with Kristina’s family and their kids.
In case you’re wondering, No the family is isn’t doing good. In fact, probably worse. The Nilsson family doesn't have good farmland and can’t grow good crops, and thus they . They live in the province of Småland, in which the land was very rocky. The Nilsson kids were always hungry too, and Kristina will often go and cry because she doesn't want to see her kids starve to death.
Then we have Robert, Karl’s older brother. Robert is the absolute opposite of Karl. Karl works really hard on his farm making sure that he doesn't give his wife depression, while Robert is obsessed with studying science and history with his friend Arvild. Oh yeah and did I mention that Robert acts super silly so his parents were overprotective of him?
Arvild is an interesting guy. He was a farmer too, but he was constantly treated badly and due to all of this, Arvild is aggressive and likes to fight people. However, Arvild has anger issues. He also is actually shy and likes studying with Robert.
So one day, Robert and Arvild were studying plants together to see if they can fix Karl’s problem on the farm. They read that America has good crops, so Robert is like “Färval Sverige, Hello America.”
Karl and Robert, Like all brothers in the world, argue a lot. So one day, Robert tells Karl and says “Hey Bro, Let’s leave Sweden.”
Karl was like “OK bro.” but Kristina…
Kristina was different. She realized that this could be a problem for her or her kids. Until something happens.
The oldest of Kristina and Karl’s kids, Anna was eating some porridge. That may seem normal but the porridge was expired. While Kristina was farming, she heard a noise and everything went blank.
Turns out Anna had eaten expired porridge and it damaged her, she later died that day. Anna was already in poor health, not because she was starving but because she decided to give the food she gets to her younger siblings. Not to mention, Karl notices that Anna was very intelligent for her age.
Kristina finally decides to leave Sweden because she is depressed about her daughter’s death.
The Nilssons among with some other people, including Robert, Arvild, Finna-Kajsa (a 65-year old woman from Öland who has no sanity), Ulrika (we don’t really talk about her, other than in the movie adaption she’s played by Tove Lo), Elin (Ulrika’s daughter) and Daniel (Guy who did something illegal and was forced to leave, Also Kristina’s uncle)
They went on a ship. I will not say the name of the Ship because it sounds like my real name. I feel honored to be named after a Swedish Immigrant ship (I am also named after a desert, an ancient Mexican queen, and character in a Nickelodeon show) As fellas who like the Scandinavian Emigration Era know, The ships were crusty musty and you could die in 2 nanoseconds from the sanity.
The Nilssons were on board, and they hated it. It was crowded, I did the math and at least 300 people were on board, having to share a tiny space. I mean, I have social anxiety so yeah.
And with crowdedness and unsanitary conditions comes disease. Kristina decided to eat something on board and then she got Typhoid. Kristina also ended having a nosebleed due to the illness, and Karl was concerned about Kristina. Kristina never noticed so she always acted like she was fine, but she wasn’t.
Kristina survived. She almost died but she’s alive for now.
There was also the captain of the ship, Captain Lorentz. He is very annoying. He likes to bully the passengers, especially Finna-Kajsa. Finna-Kajsa threw sand at him, which was odd.
The trip lasted 2 months. 2 months of suffering. Also for some reason the Nilsson kids were really chill. I don’t understand how they never got sick if they were under unsanitary conditions for a long time AND they are malnourished. Give me logic Moberg!
Anyways they arrived to a city called New York. Everyone knows what New York is so I won’t explain it.
That’s book 1. if this gets more than 5 answers I will make a plushie of Karl-Oskar and explain the rest of the books.
