Giants in the Earth

Written by Ole Edvart Rolvaag

Narrated by Scott Fleming

Length

17h 28m

Rating

4.5 (73 ratings)

Originally published in 1927, Ole Edvart Rolvaag's ‘Giants in the Earth’ is a classic Norweigian-American immigration novel. Ole Edvart Rolvaag was a Norwegian-American novelist and professor who became well known for his writings regarding the Norwegian American immigrant experience. ‘Giants in the Earth’ follows a Norwegian pioneer family's struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory as they try to make a new life in America. The book is based partly on Rolvaag's personal experiences as a settler, and on the experiences of his wife’s family who had been immigrant homesteaders. The novel depicts snowstorms, locusts, poverty, hunger, loneliness, homesickness, the difficulty of fitting into a new culture, and the estrangement of immigrant children who grow up in a new land. Giants in the Earth was turned into an opera by Douglas Moore and Arnold Sundgaard; it won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1951.