My Men
A Novel
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2.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Best Crime Novel of 2023
A Wall Street Journal Best Mystery Book of 2023
A CrimeReads Best Historical Fiction and International Crime Novel of 2023
A Best Book of 2023 - Chicago Review of Books and Marie Claire
"An eerily lyrical tour de force . . . [A] horrific, sustained portrait of a traumatized human soul." —Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
"Kielland plumbs Belle’s inner life through jaggedly rhythmic prose, where what should be obvious is sometimes opaque and what’s often shrouded — female rage — takes center stage."
—Sarah Weinman, The New York Times
"This fascinating, off-kilter novel about a female serial killer is an unexpectedly thrilling read.”
—Karl Ove Knausgård, author of My Struggle and The Morning Star
Based on the true story of Norwegian maid turned Midwestern farmwife Belle Gunness, the first female serial killer in American history. My Men is a fictional account of one broken woman's descent into inescapable madness.
Among thousands of other Norwegian immigrants seeking freedom, Brynhild Størset emigrated to the American Upper Midwest in the late nineteenth century, changing her name and her life. As Bella, later Belle Gunness, she came in search of not only fortune and true faith but, most of all, love.
From Victoria Kielland, a rising star of Norwegian literature, comes My Men, a literary reimagining of the harrowing true story of Belle Gunness, who slowly but irreversibly turned to senseless murder for release from her pain, becoming America’s first known female serial killer. In pursuit of her American Dream, Kielland’s Belle grows increasingly alienated, ruthless, and perversely compelling.
Raw, visceral, and altogether hypnotic, My Men is a brutal yet radically empathetic glimpse into the world of a woman consumed by desire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The provocative English-language debut from Kielland chronicles a real-life serial killer active during the turn of the 20th century in America. Brynhilde Belle Gunness, 17, emigrates from Norway in 1876 after her lover, the eldest son of a wealthy farming family, kicked her in the stomach upon hearing that she was pregnant with their child and caused her to miscarry. She joins her pious older sister, Nellie, in Chicago, where she attempts to be a "God-fearing" person like Nellie and bond with her nieces and nephews. In church, Belle wills her shoulders to "relax in the sight of God," but what she really wants is a new sexual partner. She lets a man named Mads Sørensen seduce her, and moves in with him before they get married, prompting Nellie to cut her off from the children. She then marries Mads, who dies in 1900 under mysterious circumstances after the couple adopted three children. Belle remarries and takes custody of two more children, all of whom witness her murder a series of men. The asynchronous narrative builds a sense of foreboding as Belle meets various men who become her victims. Her spiritual yearning and profane desires are captured in dynamic and subversive prose as Kielland explores how Belle's homicidal tendencies derive from a perverted sense of love. It's an impressive feat of historical imagination.
