My Men: A Novel

by Victoria Kielland, Damion Searls (Translator)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781662601927
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	06/27/2023
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	81,007
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Victoria Kielland’s first book, the 2013 short prose collection I Lyngen (In the Heather) was shortlisted for the Tarjei Vesaas debutant prize. In 2016, Kielland’s first novel Dammyr (Marsh Pond) was shortlisted for the Youth Critics’ Prize and the literary committee of the Norwegian Authors’ Union awarded her the Norwegian Booksellers’ primary writer’s scholarship. My Men is her breakthrough novel, published to rave reviews in Norway in 2021, as well as a huge international success with more foreign sales.

Editorial Reviews

06/19/2023

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. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"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 Best Crime Books of 2023, The New York Times

"My Men is a stylistic tour de force . . . It reads like an expressionist prose-poem penned by a stark-minded zealot . . . Kielland is clearly a gifted writer, and My Men is an impressively realized creation."
—Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

"My Men, superbly translated by Damion Searls, is a portrait of a woman trying, and failing, to escape her punishing trajectory. Bit by bit, day by day, we see, and come to understand, what has made Belle Gunness a killer."
—Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review

"The torrent of stunning prose in this novel is almost as violent as the protagonist, Belle, herself."
—Alana B. Lytle, CrimeReads

"A short, sharp shock of a book . . . [My Men is] a singular novel of unusual power from a fearless and remarkable writer."
—Carys Davies, The Guardian

"My Men paints an extraordinary portrait of the inner turmoil and ecstasy of the woman widely regarded to be America’s first female serial killer, Belle Gunness."
—Catherine Jarvie, Marie Claire (UK)

"Entirely chilling."
—Sara Batkie, Chicago Review of Books

"Victoria Kielland’s My Men doesn’t take a sensationalistic approach; instead, this novel provides an impressionistic version of Gunness’s story, illustrating her struggle for control over her own life and the increasingly lethal forms that control ends up taking."
—Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders

"[My Men] is the rare quiet literary thriller that haunts with its lyricism and exquisitely wrought characters."
—David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy

"Each line of the novel, carefully translated by Searls, conjures a beauty that begs to be read aloud. I found myself repeating lines under my breath in the shower; that’s how much this book slipped under my skin."
—Ian J. Battaglia, Chicago Review of Books

"This novel turns the tropes of true crime on its head."
—Michael Barron, The Rumpus

"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

"Kielland’s dense, lyrical novel offers both insight and opacity . . .  Despite the subject matter, this novel is not your typical thriller. The language, in Searls’ translation, is dense, poetic, and deeply figurative." 
—Kirkus Reviews

"[A] provocative English-language debut . . . [Belle Gunness's] spiritual yearning and profane desires are captured in dynamic and subversive prose . . . It’s an impressive feat of historical imagination."
—Publishers Weekly

"Kielland’s pithy tale lingers long after the reader is finished. In addition to historical fiction readers, aficionados of both crime fiction and Scandinavian literature will welcome this award-winning voice to the table."
—Karen Clements, Booklist

From the Publisher

2023-04-11
Based on the true story of one of America’s first female serial killers, Kielland’s dense, lyrical novel offers both insight and opacity.

In 1876, 17-year-old Brynhild Størset is overwhelmed by her own longings and her religious-induced shame. When she becomes pregnant, an act of violence leads to a miscarriage and, from there, a miserable boat trip from Norway to the United States. She makes her way to the Midwest and moves in with her disapproving sister, Nellie, and her family, even taking a new name: Bella. (Later, she becomes Belle.) Despite the vast landscape, she tries to keep herself small and contained, focusing on her work as a seamstress and faithfully attending church. She longs to be touched, longs for a child of her own, but “it was the same in America as in Norway—it didn’t matter, the world didn’t care about her.” Then she meets Mads Sørensen, and despite his love for her, she finds herself “just waiting for everything else to be taken away, for the invisible betrayal.” Nevertheless, they get married and begin to take in a series of children, many of whom seem to die through some vague failing of Belle’s, who isn’t "a real mother.” When Mads dies suddenly, and suspiciously, Belle and her remaining three children trade their house for a pig farm, which begets a series of men and tragedies. Despite the subject matter, this novel is not your typical thriller. The language, in Searls’ translation, is dense, poetic, and deeply figurative, as demonstrated by the first page: “The words grabbed her by the throat, Belle didn’t know when it was all going to snap, but she knew it would. A bullet, an inverted lung, a postscript to a thousand wars, tears ran down her face.” Belle is unknowable, even by the novel itself, for in the end, this isn’t really a story about a serial killer.

A meditation on female desire, on loneliness, on mental illness.

Kirkus Reviews