The Short Fiction of Jonas Lie

Jonas Lie, one of the great figures of nineteenth-century Norwegian literature, drew on the folklore of the far north for these short stories steeped in the sea. Gathered here are his eerie tales of fishermen and coastal villages where the line between the natural and the supernatural dissolves, and mermaids, sea-spirits, and half-glimpsed creatures move among ordinary people scraping a living from cold water. Lie writes with a feel for the harsh beauty of Norway’s coast and the superstitions bred by lives lived at the mercy of storms and tides. Rooted in the oral traditions of the region, the stories blend plain realism with dread and wonder in equal measure. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available.