The Calling
The Calling is a European literary novel grounded in historical realism and moral restraint. Through quiet, precise prose, it explores how responsibility, care, and endurance shape ordinary lives under extraordinary pressure. Centring on women’s labour and inherited vulnerability, the novel examines how power enters even acts of help, and how survival leaves traces long after history has moved on.
Set in northern Sweden during the Second World War, The Calling follows Karolina, wife, mother and wilderness nurse drawn into the quiet, dangerous work of helping refugees fleeing across the border. Shaped by a life of poverty and early responsibility, she carries an ever-growing burden—for strangers as well as for her own family—at a time when care, silence, and moral resolve are matters of life and death.
Karolina works alongside the charismatic provincial doctor David Hummel, whose authority and social standing allow him to act freely, yet also blur the line between help and power. On the other side of the border moves Henry Rinnan, an informer and collaborator, driven by cruelty and control. Between them unfolds a story in which class, dependence, and moral choice determine whose lives are protected—and at what cost.
Drawing on her own family history—Karolina is based on Jordahl’s grandmother—the novel grows into a powerful exploration of female endurance, moral responsibility, and the unseen labor that holds society together in times of collapse.
Pressvoices
“Jordahl fully commands the language of the historical novel. But she impresses not only through the precision of her historical fiction—between the lines one senses years of research—her portrayal of the wilderness is so powerful it leaves the reader in awe.”
Aftonbladet
“The Calling is a remarkable novel about human beings confronted with life’s ultimate challenges—about good choices and evil ones. Free of sensationalism, yet rich in human frailty and greatness.”
Upsala Nya Tidning
“Jordahl’s prose is vividly visual and moves with elegance between different layers of time.”
Dagens Nyheter
Anneli Jordahl (b. 1960) is the author of more than ten works of fiction and nonfiction and one of Sweden’s most distinguished contemporary literary voices. Her acclaimed debut novel about pioneering feminist thinker Ellen Key, Jag skulle vara din hund (om jag bara finge vara i din närhet), was widely praised upon its original publication…
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France: Les Léonides, :The Calling is a European literary novel grounded in historical realism and moral restraint. Through quiet, precise prose, it explores how responsibility, care, and endurance shape ordinary lives under extraordinary pressure. Centring on women’s labour and inherited vulnerability, the novel examines how power enters even acts of help, and how survival leaves traces long after history has moved on.
Set in northern Sweden during the Second World War, The Calling follows Karolina, wife, mother and wilderness nurse drawn into the quiet, dangerous work of helping refugees fleeing across the border. Shaped by a life of poverty and early responsibility, she carries an ever-growing burden—for strangers as well as for her own family—at a time when care, silence, and moral resolve are matters of life and death.
Karolina works alongside the charismatic provincial doctor David Hummel, whose authority and social standing allow him to act freely, yet also blur the line between help and power. On the other side of the border moves Henry Rinnan, an informer and collaborator, driven by cruelty and control. Between them unfolds a story in which class, dependence, and moral choice determine whose lives are protected—and at what cost.
Drawing on her own family history—Karolina is based on Jordahl’s grandmother—the novel grows into a powerful exploration of female endurance, moral responsibility, and the unseen labor that holds society together in times of collapse.
Pressvoices
“Jordahl fully commands the language of the historical novel. But she impresses not only through the precision of her historical fiction—between the lines one senses years of research—her portrayal of the wilderness is so powerful it leaves the reader in awe.”
Aftonbladet
“The Calling is a remarkable novel about human beings confronted with life’s ultimate challenges—about good choices and evil ones. Free of sensationalism, yet rich in human frailty and greatness.”
Upsala Nya Tidning
“Jordahl’s prose is vividly visual and moves with elegance between different layers of time.”
Dagens Nyheter
