When I Was a Child
An Autobiographical Novel, by Vilhelm Moberg, Sweden, author of The Emigrants series.
Translated and abridged by Gustaf Lannestock.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the poverty-stricken Swedish region of Småland, young Valter, the son of a soldier, explores the world around him and watches his older brothers emigrate to America. When he describes the exciting things he sees so vividly he is punished for lying, he learns to write down his stories instead. In this novel of the life of a farm boy, Vilhelm Moberg sensitively explores his own childhood. With gentle irony and a loving knowledge of the landscape, the people, and the larger issue of class struggle, Moberg offers a deeply moving view of the other side of Swedish immigration.
Paperback ,268pp. 1947/2014 translated edition.