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Nikolai's Fortune
As a child, Solveig Torvik heard stories of a lost, mysterious great-grandfather who left Finland for America to make his fortune - leaving Torvik’s great-grandmother and his unborn daughter behind. As a reporter, Torvik determined to discover the fate of the man who followed his dreams to Oregon. She uncovered not only the story of one man, but also the saga of an entire family. In Nikolai’s Fortune , a tale of Scandinavian women, the journalist turns fact into fiction and shares the tales of her ancestors as she imagines they would have told them.
Nikolai's Fortune is a heartbreaking, multigenerational epic, chronicling family secrets and sufferings against the backdrop of Scandinavian history and culture. Blending memoir and historical fiction, grandmother, mother, and daughter each share their own Kaisa, of her mother’s love for Nikolai and her own 500-mile trek at the age of twelve from impoverished Finland across the snowy mountains of Lapland; Berit, of child slavery and an obsession with seeking out her grandfather’s fortune for her mother; and Hannah, the voice of Torvik, of her childhood during the Nazi occupation of Norway and her family’s emigration to Idaho.
Through detailed historical research into census, church, and weather records, as well as academic and museum sources, Torvik recaptures a dramatic story nearly lost to memory and inherits something worth more than a fortune in riches – a sense of her family history, ethnic background, and the generations of remarkable women who came before her.
Norwegian-born Solveig Torvik was a reporter, editor, and columnist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for thirty years. She was also a reporter for United Press International in Salt Lake City and for the San Francisco Chronicle , and an editor at the San Jose Mercury News.
Nikolai's Fortune is a heartbreaking, multigenerational epic, chronicling family secrets and sufferings against the backdrop of Scandinavian history and culture. Blending memoir and historical fiction, grandmother, mother, and daughter each share their own Kaisa, of her mother’s love for Nikolai and her own 500-mile trek at the age of twelve from impoverished Finland across the snowy mountains of Lapland; Berit, of child slavery and an obsession with seeking out her grandfather’s fortune for her mother; and Hannah, the voice of Torvik, of her childhood during the Nazi occupation of Norway and her family’s emigration to Idaho.
Through detailed historical research into census, church, and weather records, as well as academic and museum sources, Torvik recaptures a dramatic story nearly lost to memory and inherits something worth more than a fortune in riches – a sense of her family history, ethnic background, and the generations of remarkable women who came before her.
Norwegian-born Solveig Torvik was a reporter, editor, and columnist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for thirty years. She was also a reporter for United Press International in Salt Lake City and for the San Francisco Chronicle , and an editor at the San Jose Mercury News.
315 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 2, 2024
The subject matter, time and place are depressing and nearly devoid of hope throughout this book, and at the end of the story we are no closer to redemption than we were at the beginning. However, that is not really the point of this book, for it is after all a story set in famine-hungry Finland, war-torn Norway, and a small town in the Idaho desert. The miracle is what comes after the narrative ends: that the author has triumphed over her mother's belittling abuse and gained insight, understanding, even sympathy into the fear that motivated her mother. She accomplishes this by piecing together her family's history and then imagining the details that bring the story to life. The author identifies this work as a novel but it is very much based on the facts of four generations of her family.
What I gained from this book, beyond the very good writing, is an appreciation for its structure. It works very well as a three-part story and Torvik is able to transition smoothly from one narrator to the next across a time period of 120 years. The choice of title is inspired, for although Nikolai is a minor character in the book it is his "fortune" that propels events. Fortune can be interpreted both literally (Torvik's mother did actually seek his monetary fortune in America, although she learned later that he had died a pauper) and symbolically, for the lover and child he abandoned in Norway, the ones whose lives Torvik sought to know and understand.
Having spent a brief time in Norway, the setting for much of the novel, I have a little better understanding of how hard it must have been for these Finnish/Sami women to survive there and the complicated choices which Kaisa confronted in raising seven children as a single mother. The underlying theme of secrets--unexpressed emotions, hidden heritage, and outright lies to other family members--seemed to me to be a big part of the Norwegian psyche that we observed.
Torvik provides excellent notes on her methodology, which must be read in order to fully understand the book's boundaries between real and imagined.
What I gained from this book, beyond the very good writing, is an appreciation for its structure. It works very well as a three-part story and Torvik is able to transition smoothly from one narrator to the next across a time period of 120 years. The choice of title is inspired, for although Nikolai is a minor character in the book it is his "fortune" that propels events. Fortune can be interpreted both literally (Torvik's mother did actually seek his monetary fortune in America, although she learned later that he had died a pauper) and symbolically, for the lover and child he abandoned in Norway, the ones whose lives Torvik sought to know and understand.
Having spent a brief time in Norway, the setting for much of the novel, I have a little better understanding of how hard it must have been for these Finnish/Sami women to survive there and the complicated choices which Kaisa confronted in raising seven children as a single mother. The underlying theme of secrets--unexpressed emotions, hidden heritage, and outright lies to other family members--seemed to me to be a big part of the Norwegian psyche that we observed.
Torvik provides excellent notes on her methodology, which must be read in order to fully understand the book's boundaries between real and imagined.
September 11, 2023
I can't speak enough praise for this book and how well Solveig Torvik researched what she could of all aspects of her family's stories and lives. Even where she has written fictiously to fill in gaps, she has done her research to make it as close to truth as would be possible to discern from the information available.
She brought each family member to life, and I felt as if they could be my own family. I couldn't put the book down and had to know what happened next. I felt all of their emotions sharing in the happiness, grief, and anger.
I highly recommend this book!
She brought each family member to life, and I felt as if they could be my own family. I couldn't put the book down and had to know what happened next. I felt all of their emotions sharing in the happiness, grief, and anger.
I highly recommend this book!
May 6, 2025
Although I respect the author's intention to share precious Sami history it was difficult to lose myself in the story because it felt so undeveloped. It was historically accurate and competently written, but it lacked the storytelling spark that makes for a good novel. So sorry to find it so plodding. I gave upbefore I finished it although I was mildly curious to know what happened.
But for characterization and storytelling with a nordic focus I recommend Selma Lagerlof, Sigrid Undset, Astrid Lindren, Tove Jansson and Knut Hamsun.
But for characterization and storytelling with a nordic focus I recommend Selma Lagerlof, Sigrid Undset, Astrid Lindren, Tove Jansson and Knut Hamsun.
February 11, 2019
Awesome book. I was taken in by the history of the region because of my family heritage. I was also enraged by the brutal misogyny that continued on through the generations while being inspired by the determined female characters who continued to do the best they could in spite of so much stacked against them. Perfect read for a long winter.
February 3, 2025
Kolme sukupolvea. Kolme tarinaa. Todella hieno, sekalaisia tunteita herättävä lukukokemus ✨
Lukiessa mietin, että kuinka paljon he, köyhät siirtolaisnaiset ovat joutuneet kokemaan ja mistä kaikesta selviytymään kukin omin avuin. Kirja perustuu tositapahtumiin.
(Sijoitin kirjan Helmet-lukuhaaste 2025 kohtaan: 8. Kirjassa on prologi.)
Lukiessa mietin, että kuinka paljon he, köyhät siirtolaisnaiset ovat joutuneet kokemaan ja mistä kaikesta selviytymään kukin omin avuin. Kirja perustuu tositapahtumiin.
(Sijoitin kirjan Helmet-lukuhaaste 2025 kohtaan: 8. Kirjassa on prologi.)
June 2, 2024
I like how the story is told by a series of family members and gives a feel of Norwegian life with joys and challenges. I found the treatment of women very depressing. This particular family is unfortunately an example of how trauma is passed from generation to generation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 28, 2021
I hung on to every word. This story follows the history of a Finnish family's struggles to stay alive from the1870s- 1948. Poverty and dispare after through loss of husband's, searching for a better life, land not producing, cold freezing weather, disease, giving children to someone that can feed them, rape, no work, constantly moving, WWII with the invasion of Nazis. Its amazing how through it all the most valuable fortune is family. This story reminds me if stories I've heard from family that lived in Northern Norway in the early 1900s.
February 25, 2014
Wonderful and enthralling multi-generational memoir, tho it's published as a novel. Characters include Finnish, Norwegian, Sami, and American folk in their struggles for survival in the harsh north of Norway, the bleak starvation of German occupation, the loneliness of immigration. Saddest is their collective avoidance of appreciation and acknowledgment for their fellow strugglers.
Three parts, each told in the voice of a girl-turning-to-woman, her view of her world in all those phases. Lots of context-- history, key events, jobs, culture, clothing, food, travel, geography, economy -- all of it absorbing and fascinating terrain traveled by the women, their children, and the men who come and go.
I found this book by searching for "Norway" on the website of my local library . Not sure I would have found it otherwise, but am grateful it crossed my reading path. It is a fascinating and well-written story without contrivances or embellishments. Read it as a true tale.
Three parts, each told in the voice of a girl-turning-to-woman, her view of her world in all those phases. Lots of context-- history, key events, jobs, culture, clothing, food, travel, geography, economy -- all of it absorbing and fascinating terrain traveled by the women, their children, and the men who come and go.
I found this book by searching for "Norway" on the website of my local library . Not sure I would have found it otherwise, but am grateful it crossed my reading path. It is a fascinating and well-written story without contrivances or embellishments. Read it as a true tale.
June 3, 2010
I really ought to give it 5 stars because this book is amazing. But it is just such a tragic story of so much suffering and struggle and I like a little more humor and hope in the books I read. So 4* for this 4 generation of women from Finland to Norway to Idaho...
I've been on this road myself so I can say that I found this book very honest and revealing. Her descriptions of the breathtakingly beautiful North Norway seance brought back my greenie trainers photos. The 1870 Finland and the WW2 life reminded me of my mother's stories. Hanna's musings on her mother as a RS president versus a privet person parallel my own thoughts. This is "the most classic of American stories: the long, winding journey form Old World to New, and then the rediscovery of tangled roots, of mothers and daughters, in homelands never entirely left behind." Highly recommended specially for my sisters and nieces.
I've been on this road myself so I can say that I found this book very honest and revealing. Her descriptions of the breathtakingly beautiful North Norway seance brought back my greenie trainers photos. The 1870 Finland and the WW2 life reminded me of my mother's stories. Hanna's musings on her mother as a RS president versus a privet person parallel my own thoughts. This is "the most classic of American stories: the long, winding journey form Old World to New, and then the rediscovery of tangled roots, of mothers and daughters, in homelands never entirely left behind." Highly recommended specially for my sisters and nieces.
March 24, 2011
The first of the Ness sibling's FAMILY BOOK CLUB. (The highlight of which was lunch-book club with my brother AND sister at Ivar's on the Pier yesterday. What fun!) I love-hated this book! Written in terse, pragmatic language, the author travels across Finland to the coast of Norway and finally to Idaho in a chill-swept saga of strong Norwegian-Finnish women. Two men who read the book even agreed: the author well reveals in story roles strong-backboned women have played for centuries. The starkness of Norway's northern region is the perfect background palette for this tragic story of 4 generations of strong women. A very unique book.
May 5, 2012
The credo for the family that Solveig Torvik wrote about was: "if a thing remains unspoken, it does not exist; if pain is given no voice, it lacks power to harm." This was a real family. THe bore almost unspeakable hardships and difficulties during WWII in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. 9 April 1930 the Nazis invaded Norway. Life changed. not for the best. Hard, hard, hard. I'm not certain I could have survived. But these were not the happiest people. Even so, it was an incredible book to read. The characters were real as were the situations. Torvik brought them all back to life.
July 20, 2020
Mixed feelings, beautifully written but cruel and bitter
I enjoyed very much the first half of the book. Beautiful descriptions of Nordic nature and characters. But the story turned boring from the Hanna’s chapter. It was also utterly cruel and bitter without being necessary to my belief.
I enjoyed very much the first half of the book. Beautiful descriptions of Nordic nature and characters. But the story turned boring from the Hanna’s chapter. It was also utterly cruel and bitter without being necessary to my belief.
March 11, 2021
Riveting
An amazing rendition of family records combined with historical fiction to bring together a heartfelt tale that was hard to put down. My family comes from Norway and Sweden and it makes me wonder if they shared similar circumstances. This has inspired me to do my own research into family history and migration from this region.
An amazing rendition of family records combined with historical fiction to bring together a heartfelt tale that was hard to put down. My family comes from Norway and Sweden and it makes me wonder if they shared similar circumstances. This has inspired me to do my own research into family history and migration from this region.
February 5, 2014
I am looking forward to a rich discussion of this book at the Sons of Norway book club this week. The cross between memoir and historical fiction is both riveting and heart breaking. I recommend it to students of Scandinavian literature.
October 17, 2013
A fictionalized memoir of three generations of strong, interesting women in Finland, Norway and Idaho. Trials and tribulations, family secrets, effects of poverty and overcoming adversity--good book.
December 22, 2010
Sad sad sad
July 24, 2011
Not a light summer read, but enlightening as to the challenges of maintaining a livlihood as a single woman in Scandinavia.
December 11, 2013
This story was so miserable I didn't finish it. About women surviving. About woman getting raped and having a baby - utter disgrace. Then it happens again. And again.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews