The Confession

The Original Sin Saga is the product of best-selling author Anne-Lise Boge, and follows the dramatic life of Mali Buvik in early twentieth century Norway.

A peasant girl born on a small, struggling farm, Mali dreams of finding true love in a world where so few women are allowed to follow their hearts. Her family's farm is failing, though, and she is forced to marry the son of a wealthy landowner to save her family from a life of poverty - or worse.

After a short but sensuous affair with a handsome gypsy, Mali has found herself the mother of an unexpected blessing in the form of her son, Little-Silvert. Thanks to her cleverness and stubborn will, she has managed to convince her abusive husband that the child is his, and finally begins to see a side of Johan that she didn't know existed: a man who is capable of love and tenderness, all the things he's never shown her.

Life continues in the valley, for some at least. Not so long after she lost a friend in childbirth, Mali's pregnant sister, Margarethe, begins to show signs of dangerous complications. As if those potentially-deadly complications weren't bad enough, she goes into labour in the coldest January anyone can remember.

Being born in January is a death sentence for all but the most robust children of the valley - but the women are born tough on Buvika farmstead, and they won't let something as small as a lethal blizzard stand in their way.

Originally published in Norwegian by Cappelen Damm, under the title Betroelsen (Arvesynd, #3). Translated to English with permission of both author and publisher.