Sigrid Undset is often spoken of as the greatest novelist of the twentieth century. She, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928, may also be one of the greatest converts during the same century. Contrary to the cliché, Sigrid Undset did not convert because of her fondness for the Middle Ages. In this age of one-parent families and "partner" relationships, it may be most instructive to recall that she converted because her disastrous marriage opened her eyes to what it means for a woman to be a mother and to what children really are, beings created by God for an eternal destiny. That meaning Sigrid Undset found to be anchored in the reality of the Catholic Church insofar as its Founder, Jesus Christ, was truly the Son of God. She then became a staunch defender of the Catholic faith through many essays that have been neglected by her literary critics, most of whom judged her on the basis of her novels, while largely ignoring their true gist. Those essays convey with particular force Sigrid Undset's quest for Truth and her holding fast to it, once she had embraced it with great joy. The book contains the text of Sigrid Undset's two pivotal essays, not previously available in English, Efterskrift (Postscript), translated by Marianne Aga, and My reasons to convert, translated by Fr. John H. Halborg.

    A booklet that contains another text of Sigrid Undset, Reply to a Parish Priest, can be found here.

By Fr. Stanley L. Jaki

ISBN 978-0-9790577-6-2  •  viii + 296 pages  •  softcover