Novel
The Good Shepherd
Advent
Gunnar Gunnarsson · 1936
Synopsis
Every year, on the first Sunday of Advent, weather permitting, the shepherd Benedikt goes up into the mountain to look for the sheep that have separated from the flock, to bring them back before Christmas: they are lives, and he feels responsible for them. He takes no man with him, only his dog Leó and his sheep Roc, companions of long standing. It is his twenty-seventh expedition, and in the winter storm, men looking for sheep, then for horses, will ask for his help.
Context
The narrative grew out of a short story, Den gode Hyrde, published in 1931 in the periodical Julesne; the complete version appeared first in German, in Leipzig, in 1936, under the title Advent im Hochgebirge, then in Danish in autumn 1937 and in Icelandic in 1939. Translated into English in 1940 under the title The Good Shepherd, it was chosen in 1941 by the Book of the Month Club and sold several hundred thousand copies in the United States, while Reclam sold more than four hundred thousand in Germany after the war. The French translation of 1993, made from the Icelandic version, was reissued in 2019 with an afterword by Jón Kalman Stefánsson.
Who it is for
A short narrative, readable in French, which can be read as a Christmas story; a walk in the snow rather than a plot.
Prizes and reception
Published in at least twelve languages, it has probably sold more than a million copies.