The Longest Years: A Novel

The Longest Years is an autobiographical fictional story that vividly depicts childhood experiences. Undset offers a whole cornucopia of original sensations in a child's existence through the young Norwegian girl Ingvild: the sights, sounds, and smells; the beginnings of thought and the severe pangs of suffering; and the pure privilege of innocence.

The Longest Years, first published in 1935, was praised by critics as "forthright and untinted...honest and real," "exquisite...perhaps the finest thing Undset has written since the incomparable Kristin Lavransdatter." To this day, the work retains its force as an opportunity to observe the world through the eyes of a child.