I read this book because my aunt told me it was my grandfather's favorite book. It had been described as an adult version of little house on the prairie, and I think that's a fine description. Originally written in Norwegian Rolvaag writes in a very attractive manner quite different from his contemporaries. He writes a lot more how people talk a lot less of ":We need to harvest the potatoes,' said Per Hands" and a lot more "Per Hands said they needed to harvest the potatoes" sometimes it took 20 pages to describe events of an hour and sometimes 6 years passed in two paragraphs. I really fell in love with these characters and their struggle to make it on the edge of the prairie in North Dakota. I particularly felt for Beret the mentally ill wife of our PROTAGONIST Per Hansa, thought they didn't call he mentally ill back then. My biggest disappointment was the ending. Only further increased the predjudice that Norwegians can never be happy and have to find a way to be depressed. I also would have preferred if I had read the original first edition published as two separate books, the nearly 600 page omnibus became a bit unruly.