The Rise of Jonas Olsen: A Norwegian Immigrants Saga

(Hardback)

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The road to riches for the hero of this sweeping historical novel ends up being rockier than he initially expects. Norwegian immigrant Jonas Olsen arrives in late nineteenth-century Minneapolis with little money and less English. He quickly learns to reinvent himselffrom laboring in sewer construction to building a successful dry goods business, from losing everything in a banking collapse to settling the Red River Valley. While an eminently likable character, Jonas can also be ruthless in his ambition to find success in America.

Author Bio

(1864-1923) was a journalist and editor of the Decorah Posten from 1900 to 1923. is professor of American literature at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the author of The Western Home: A Literary History of Norwegian America and Immigrant Minds, American Identities: Making the United States Home, 1870-1930. is editor of the Norwegian-American Historical Association publication program.