![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/PageTurners.jpg?resize=400%2C79\")
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.\u00a0 The Bell in the Lake\u2019 by Lars Mytting<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Norway, 1880. Winter is hard in Butangen. The lake has frozen, and the ground is too hard to bury the dead. Astrid Hekne dreams of a life beyond marriage and children, and working to the end of her days. Then Pastor Kai Schweigaard takes over the small parish, with its 700-year-old stave church. The two bells in the tower are said to hold supernatural powers.<\/p>\n It is rare that a book receives similar praise from a diverse group of people reading it. An average score of 9.5! Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the book praising the translation, the research, descriptions of the landscape and the cold, the incredible detail of the stave church, and the characters. There was an incorporation of myth and folklore but the story still remained believable with descriptions of the hardships of farming and the long dark winters. Some of the group had been fortunate enough to visit Norway and to see stave churches, of which few remain, and for them the book was evocative and brought back memories of Norway.<\/p>\n The ending felt slightly rushed but as this is the first of a trilogy, this was perhaps as an introduction of what is still to come.<\/p>\n Many thanks to our host for delicious tea and cakes!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" .\u00a0 The Bell in the Lake\u2019 by Lars Mytting Norway, 1880. Winter is hard in Butangen. The lake has frozen, and the ground is too hard to bury the dead. Astrid Hekne dreams of a life beyond marriage and children, and working to the end of her days. Then Pastor Kai Schweigaard takes over the small parish, with its 700-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6cWjO-10590","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13017,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=13017","url_meta":{"origin":10590,"position":0},"title":"“The Reindeer Hunters” by Lars Mytting","author":"Alan Williams","date":"14th March 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Reindeer Hunters\" by Lars Mytting For the Page Turners, the Reindeer Hunters was an eagerly anticipated read, after the first book in the trilogy, the Bell in the Lake, had received unanimously good reviews from all the book club members. However, there were disappointing reviews from the majority of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16496,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16496","url_meta":{"origin":10590,"position":1},"title":"“This Must be the Place” by Maggie O’Farrell","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \"This Must be the Place\" by Maggie O'Farrell If you haven't noticed, it's the award season in the film world with Oscar and Bafta nominations for the best film and TV programmes from 2025 being discussed. To start our December Page Turner meeting, a vote was taken to decide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for January 2026"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for January 2026","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=429"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10141,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10141","url_meta":{"origin":10590,"position":2},"title":"The Salt Path by Raynor Winn","author":"Alan Williams","date":"24th August 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"At last the Covid 19 restrictions relaxed enough to allow us to meet in Jill\u2019s lovely garden with delicious cake to follow! We discussed The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. For Raynor Winn and her husband Moth, the cruellest of diagnoses and the simultaneous collapse of their business opens an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4978,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4978","url_meta":{"origin":10590,"position":3},"title":"Llangorse Lake","author":"Alan Williams","date":"18th September 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0Llangorse Lake - \u00a0 Parking at the lake, we set off to circumnavigate it. We headed across fields to a solid bridge allowing us to cross a feeder stream. We spotted well constructed bird hides at the edge of a group of trees; three of the oaks here were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10628,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10628","url_meta":{"origin":10590,"position":4},"title":"Waking Up in a Greek Monastery","author":"Alan Williams","date":"19th November 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"o WORKING IN THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD I am fast asleep when a strange noise wakes me, checking my watch it is 3 am and very dark. I am in a Greek monastery overlooking the Aegean Sea, which laps at the walls one hundred feet beneath my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Monastery.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7160,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7160","url_meta":{"origin":10590,"position":5},"title":"Barry","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd February 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Barry The forecast was that Storm Brian was going to blow hard with intermittent heavy showers. Still 13 brave souls set out from Cold Knap and quickly moved down to the lake to seek shelter from the wind. Many seabirds had the same idea and we even saw a black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Feb2020WhatsOn-Pic-3-300x201.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10590"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10592,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10590\/revisions\/10592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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