Norway. The 1800s. Endre must to take over the family farm from his father—his father, who swings the sickle and sharpens the Scythe, and says this is the only way in which rocks and stones and mounts and Waves can still be ours. But endre is Strange, he keeps to himself, unlike his brothers who are Merry and full of joy. He wants to live in the farm without longing to leave, but he is struggling. Then he meets abelone—"the bearer of light." tall and thin, always sitting with her books, sharper than all she went to school with, she is about to be a teacher. They appear to come from different worlds from the ancient, traditional, natural world; The other from the forward-looking world of modernity, of breaking away, and of renewal. But there is love—great and immediate. With new ideas and new languages, abelone opens up the world of endre—whose name means "change." a novel written in lyrical verse, Ruth lillegraven’s sickle is an unforgettable evocation of longing and loss, of dreams and reality, and the importance of language itself.
Ruth Lillegraven debuted as an author in 2005. She has published a series of books for children and adults, including five poetry collections and the novel Between Us. She won the prestigious Brage Prize for her poetry collection Urd in 2013 and the New Norwegian Literature Prize for Sickle in 2016. Her first play, Cally, premiered at the Norwegian eatre in Oslo in 2018.