Searching for Nora: After the Doll's House

by Wendy Swallow

At the end of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House, Nora Helmer walks away from her family and comfortable life. It is 1879, late on a winter's night in Norway. She's alone, with little money and few legal rights. Guided by instinct and sustained by will, Nora sets off on a journey that impoverishes and radicalizes her, then strands her on the harsh Minnesota prairie. She's searching for love, purpose, and her true self, but struggles to be honest in a hostile world. Meanwhile, in 1918, a young university student tries to escape her family's bourgeois conformity as she unravels her grandfather's hidden shame and the fate of a shadowy feminist who vanished years earlier. With this inventive work of historical fiction, Swallow answers a question that has dogged theater audiences for A Doll's House : whatever happened to Nora Helmer? Masterfully crafted and painstakingly researched, the twin story lines of Searching for Nora combine to tell a powerful tale of redemption as they unfold over four decades in the fjords of Norway and the unforgiving American frontier.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Novels, Fiction, Book Club

416 pages, Paperback

Published August 26, 2019

Reviews

[Harmony]

A very good app

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly engrossing!

[Ellen K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Searching for Nora begins where Ibsen's "A Doll House" ends, with Nora Helmer walking away from her home, husband Torvold, and children Ivar, Bobby, and Emma on a cold winter's night just after Christmas. Nora is a complicated character with depths Swallow develops and draws on as she delves into what may have happened to Nora in the world of 1879 Norway; a time when women had no legal rights to their children or possessions and few job opportunities.

Swallow keeps Nora in her time, readers get a sense of what life would have been like for a woman on her own in Ibsen's day. Swallow alternates Nora's story with that of young Solvi, a woman coming of age as WWI ends, attending college while trying to solve a family mystery. It is to the author's credit that the each of the stories heighten the reader's interest in both, and the resolution was both plausible and very emotionally satisfying.

In addition to being a great read, the book is a primer on women's history of the era in Norway and the United states and the challenges women faced if they deviated from societal norms. I finished the book hoping Swallow writes more of the Helmer family, if not Nora then of her descendants.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Norwegian-born Henrik Ibsen’s Playwright wrote the play A Doll’s House in 1879 (Rugnetta 2018). The American-born writer Wendy Swallow wrote a novel that imagines Nora after the end of the play. The novel is entitled Searching for Nora: After the Doll’s House. The book was published in 2019. Shallow is a professor emeritus of journalism at the American University in Washington D.C. (Swallow 2023). Shallow writes on her website, that “as I negotiated life as a divorced single mom, I often thought of Ibsen’s Nora and the challenges she would have faced in her time – the thin purse, the ache of being barred from seeing her children, the shame of being expelled from her class” (Swallow 2023). In Searching for Nora, Nora immigrates to the United States. Swallow believes that many Norwegians who immigrated to the United States did so they could recreate themselves (Maren 2022). Shallow also hoped in the novel, to show how “Nora would face the devils of her day. She would gather the courage to give up her masquerades and manipulations so that she could stand honestly before the world” (Shallow 2019 viii). Searching for Nora follows the story of Nora from 1879 until 1919. The novel also follows the story of Nora’s Norwegian granddaughter Solvi Lange, who is searching for the mysterious Nora in post-World War I Norway. Lange is also trying to make her way in the world. I thought Wendy Shallow’s novel Searching for Nora was an interesting and well-done sequel to Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
Works Cited:
Johnson, Maren. “Vesterheim Bokprat: Wendy Swallow's Searching for Nora: After the Doll's House (Online).” April 4, 2022. Interview with Wendy Shallow, 54:17 minutes. Vesterheim Bokprat: Wendy Swallow's Searching for Nora: After the Doll's House (Online) - YouTube
Rugnetta, Mike. “Symbolism, Realism, and a Nordic Playwright Grudge Match: Crash Course Theater #33.” Crash Course. October 12, 2018. Symbolism, Realism, and a Nordic Playwright Grudge Match: Crash Course Theater #33 - YouTube
Swallow, Wendy. 2023. “About the Author.” Searching for Nora's website. Last modified: September 21, 2023. Searching for Nora Meet the Author of Searching for Nora: Wendy Swallow

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I never read or saw A Doll's House, I was familiar with the story line. My Daughters of Norway lodge had the pleasure of having a Zoom meeting with the author, Wendy Swallow, and she was very interesting in telling about why she wanted to write this story and the details of how it came to happen. I would have given this book a 5 except I thought she put Nora through a crisis or two too many. The poor girl! Who could go through all she did without tearing her hair out and still be sane at the end is more than I can conceive.

Swallow did a remarkable job in detailing the history of life in Norway at the time this all happened and also of life on the prairie in America when she settled there. How people lived through those times without needing therapy is more than I know! Life was hard. We have it so easy in comparison, even though we're going through some rough times now with the pandemic, etc.

I would recommend this book to all interested in women's rights or just because they loved "A Doll House" or whatever reason they might have.

[Don Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Wendy Swallow had taken a novel, pardon the pun, approach using Norwegian Playwright Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House as a jumping off point to tell a compelling story about riches to rags, escaping oppression, facing hardship and despair and overcoming it all to know independence and love. In the last scene of Ibsen’s play, Nora Helmer leaves her husband and three children to escape a stifling, controlling life and an abusive, loveless marriage. After she closes the door to end the performance, audiences were left to speculate on what happened to her. Swallow has answered that question in her way, taking Nora on a journey beginning in 1889 and covering a lot of ground. Nora’s journey coincides with one by a university student some twenty years later. This young student sets out to find her own identity in the world against Norway male-dominated mores as she searches for a notorious early feminist known as The Forgotten One. The author does a splendid job interweaving the two stories. The book is a long read but it commanded my attention the entire way. It’s among the better written novels I’ve read. I recommend it highly.

[Carolinecarver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wendy Swallow imagines what happens to Nora, from Ibsen’s “A Doll House,” after she walks away from her husband and children in Norway. It’s an imaginative story, following two generations. Nora, in a desperate attempt to escape a vengeful husband, finds passage to America and continues on to the harsh life of a homesteader on the Minnesota prairie. The second story is from Nora’s granddaughter who, in her search for the infamous “Forgotten Woman” of her mother’s generation, uncovers the story of her own grandmother. Beautifully researched with a strong feminist bent, Swallow examines the struggle women of Nora’s time and class had if they chose a different path from the one society had dictated for them. Along the way, she presents another view of working class women who often had no choice. Well done.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It shows how difficult things were for women in the past, biases that occurred and how they left women without choices. It also shows how extremely judgemental people can be. There are so many situations that require understanding, but too many people make a judgement without ever talking to the person and trying to understand or see things from a different point of view. It's easier to just decide that person is the villain because they didn't do what was "convenient". While some of this has changed, unfortunately there are still a lot of difficulties for women in this world. We've come a long way, but there's still more to do.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read chronicling Nora's adaptation to being on her own after leaving Torvald and the children, her search for employment, housing and a new life in America. Her resilience to keep moving forward, survive, use her wits and build a new life is a lesson to anyone struggling to do the same. Highly recommend it.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe it was my Finnish background but the story of Nora, was really well written about the struggle in old country homes with servants, america was immigrants to Minnesota and later Spokane. A powerful story.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. 4.5!

[Dina Rosenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick enjoyable read. The writing is beautiful

[Erick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good one....

[Beryl Otieno]

Searching for Nora

[Admiral · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like doll house as it was my best set book back in high school

[Nancy Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved loved loved this book!!! Such a great story.

[Naomi Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is thoughtful and eloquently written. After studying Ibsen’s play last semester, I decided to read this version of “Nora’s story”- and I could hardly put it down. 5 stars all the way.

[Audrey Webster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done sequel. Enjoyable read.

[Lois Peterson]

Jan. 2023 Book at Mt Olive

[Lori Koppelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a clever concept to take the Ibsen story further and tell it from two different voices. I was immediately captivated by the plot and characters.

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

My great grandmother left a husband and children in Norway to come to the USA with another man and start a new family so this book provides some history into what was happening.

[Jeff J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impressive attempt at a sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s The Doll House, suggesting what happened to Nora afterwards. The suthor’s account of the Norwegian diaspora was particularly illuminating.

[Marjorie Cavalier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plausible resolution to Ibsen's story of Nora Helmer in A Doll House.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Henrik Ibsen's play "A Doll's House" before you read this book.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this sequel to A DOLL'S HOUSE, Wendy Swallow's well-researched projection of what may have happened to Nora. Swallow has created a near-epic of experiences for the stubborn, frustrated woman who finds herself unable to let go of the children she has abandoned. Life is never easy for Nora as she struggles to survive and keep her secrets in both Norway and America. Swallow's writing is sometimes near-genius, and her story is compelling.

[Alice]

good book, interesting read!