Kingdom Come

Spring in Denmark, 1850, and a girl of sixteen, somewhat spoiled but wholly enchanting, falling headlong in love with a stalwart, redheaded, handsome youth -- this is part of the special magic in the opening pages of Kingdom Come. This vivid evocation of nineteenth-century Denmark illuminates an unfamiliar, fascinating fragment of history: the Danish conflict with Prussia over Schleswig-Holstein; the social unrest and spiritual ferment of the period; the arrival in Scandinavia of Mormon missionaries. Sorensen grew up in a Utah valley that was called "Little Denmark" by settlers who came from Scandinavia. A Guggenheim Fellow, Sorensen went back to Denmark in 1954 to investigate what brought these settlers to Utah as Mormon converts. Most of her previous novels were about the American West, including A Little Lower Than the Angels, Many Heavens, and Miracles on Maple Hill, for which she won the Newbery Medal in 1957