Les campanes bessones

An exuberant story about how the past influences the present in the most unexpected ways.As far as memory goes, the wooden church bells have rung the remote town of Butang in Norway. Forged in memory of Siamese twins who died too young, bells are said to ring alone when danger approaches.In 1879, the young pastor Kai Schweigaard arrives in town, where Astrid Hekne yearns to lead a modern life. She sees in the pastor a promise of escape; he, in Astrid, a bond with the community to try to carry out his plans regarding the church, with its effigies of pagan deities and the supernatural bells. When the shepherd closes the bargaining deal and brings in a stranger, a sophisticated German architect, the town and Astrid are caught between the past and the future, as dark forces come into play.Lars Mytting, author of the acclaimed The Wood Book and the memorable novel The Sixteen Trees of the Somme, brings out his knowledge of history, carpentry and fishing and puts them at the service of a powerful story, the result of the clash between the times anscestrals and the challenges of modernity, between new ideas and superstition.