AshehougAgency

The Missionaries

Young Jack Hansen hasn’t quite found his place in life. He doesn’t have the job of his dreams, he has a neighbour he thinks is annoying and a girlfriend he might as well break up with. That’s why doing the Great African Journey seems like such a good idea.

In Kenya Jack feels an overwhelming fascination for what he imagines must be the uniquely African. At the same time he is disgusted by the custom of female circumcision, and he kidnaps a young Masai girl, Mbambi, in order to save her from being circumcised. Jack asks the old missionary Gunnhild Snow for help. But for Gunnhild the most important thing becomes deciding who she should feel responsibility towards: Mbambi, who might be able to get away, Jack, who needs her support, or Mbambi’s relative, the doctor Winnie. And meanwhile Jack and Mbambi escape through Kenya continues.

Praise for THE MISSIONARIES:

“THE MISSIONARIES is another convincing building block in the work of a very interesting writer.”
(Terje Stemland, Aftenposten, Norway)

“Seyfarth Guldbrandsen writes in a sharp and distinctive style. The book is politic, but never dogmatic, and the author’s broad insight is combined with at least as much humour […] Never predictable, [THE MISSIONARIES] continues to grow in the reader long after he finishes reading.”
(Annette Orre, Dagsavisen, Norway)

“THE MISSIONARIES never starts evangelizing. It’s a far too wise and nuanced book for that. There is not even a hint of black and white heroic portraits in it. That makes it a text which can enlighten the reader.”
(Ane Farsethås, Dagens Næringsliv, Norway)

“THE MISSIONARIES is a dramatic and at times comic novel of rebellion. Amongst others againg politically correct Western moralism. […] The best thing about Seyfarth is that she has something to say. She has a lot to say.”
(Cathrine Krøger, Dagbladet, Norway)

First published: 2008, Aschehoug Fiction
Adelheid Seyfarth: Biography and bibliography