Set in 17th-century Torshavn, ‘The Good Hope’ (Danish: Det gode håb) is a 1964 historic novel by the Faroese writer William Heinesen: it shared the 1965 ‘Nordic Council Literature Prize‘ with Lagercrantz’s ‘From hell to Paradise‘. William Heinesen was a poet, a novelist and short-story writer who wrote in Danish (his mother was Danish) but his novels, including The Good Hope, were later translated into the Faroese language. The environments in his novels were Faroese, influenced by his upbringing in a trading house in Tórshavn: his novels are eventful, and a tinge of social-criticism runs through them. Published by Gyldendal publishing company in 1964, ‘The Good Hope’ is an epistolary novel: letters written by the young Danish minister Peter Børresen to an older colleague, depicting urban life and power machinations in old Tórshavn. William Heinesen created a novel in the great European tradition of realism: despite the historical context, the story unfolds in a modern, multifaceted and reflective way, and it is instilled with humour and irony, in some instances reminiscent of writers like Charles Dickens and Thomas Mann. According to the Adjudicating Committee ‘The Good Hope’ “provides a lush and colourful picture of a period of crisis in Nordic history, and also a universal tale of the struggle between justice and oppression.” An excerpt from Goodreads description: “It tells a story of brutal oppression, poverty and terrible diseases, but also of resistance and of having the courage of one’s convictions. It is a dramatic fantasy in which Heinesen’s customary themes […] emerge on a higher plane […] ‘The Good Hope’ is a masterpiece which took 40 years to write.”
