No Stones in Heaven tells the story of Kristina and Salve Knudsen, Norwegian Quakers who immigrated to the American Midwest in 1885. It tells how Kristina and Salve came to a wide open land that welcomed them with freedom to practice their religion, and rich, black soil to farm. It tells the story of how they settled with other Quakers, in Legrand, Iowa, and established their farm, and how the farm grew. The deep love between Salve and Kristina is enriched by the seven children Kristina bore, as well as by the silence and reserve that distinguished their lives as Quakers and farmers. But this silence and reserve also will be responsible for Kristina’s death, after which sheer necessity will twist the fates of Salve and their children.
About the Author
Arlene Swift Jones brilliantly captures the inner lives of her characters, as well as the changing texture of their times. She tells of the intergenerational ties and tensions as one daughter, then another, marry neighboring farmers—one successful, one failed; as the country industrializes; as large corporations push smaller farmers aside; and as one son is finally faced with the loss of his family’s land—the beautiful and once thriving farm built by Salve and Kristina.
