2025-06-25 – June Bokprat: The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Miller (Online)

Schedule: 

Instructor: 

Location: 

Dr. Maren Johnson, Luther College's Associate Professor of Nordic Studies and Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies Director, facilitates a monthly bokprat, discussing Scandinavian authors and Scandinavian life. Join us in June for a discussion of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Miller. 

In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves his restless life in Stockholm to seek adventure in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where four months of darkness bring both the splendor of the Northern Lights and the danger of polar bear attacks. His time as a miner ends when an avalanche nearly kills him, leaving him disfigured and prompting him to flee even further to an uninhabited fjord where he builds a hut and lives alone with his loyal dog, testing himself against the elements. The teachings of a Finnish fur trapper, letters from his family, and the support of a Scottish geologist help him survive his first winter. Years into his isolation, an unlikely visitor soothes his loneliness, setting off a chain of events that brings him into a family of fellow castoffs and shapes the course of his life. Written with wry humor and in prose as breathtaking as the stark landscape it evokes, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is a testament to human resilience and connection, reminding us that even in the most inhospitable conditions, we are never beyond the reach of love.

Supplies:

Registrants should secure their own copy of the book (available for purchase soon through the Vesterheim Museum Store) and have read it prior to the discussion. 

Students will need to provide a computer, laptop, or tablet with a camera and mic as well as a fast, reliable internet connection.

Special Instructions:  

When registering for the class, please make sure to use the mailing and email addresses you'd like the Zoom meeting invitations sent to. You will receive links to the Zoom sessions by email sometime during the week prior to the class. If this class is a gift, please sign up with the recipient's mailing and email addresses or be prepared to forward the kit and all communications.

Enrollment Deadline: 

June 11, 2025

Click Here to learn more about instructor Dr. Maren Anderson Johnson.

Vesterheim’s Bokprat classes are supported in part by a generous gift to the Vesterheim Annual Fund from Bruce Gjovig from Grand Forks, North Dakota. 

Vesterheim’s 2025 online programming is supported in part by a generous gift to the Vesterheim Annual Fund from Sons of Norway - Noreg Lodge 3-466.