A man of strong opinions and a deep sympathy for the common people, Vilhelm Moberg was one of Sweden's foremost novelists and dramatists in the first half of the twentieth century. Born and raised in the poverty-stricken highland area of southern Sweden, Moberg retained throughout his life a thorough, firsthand knowledge of the living conditions and thought patterns of the humble farming classes in his native Småland. As a result Moberg stands out as a leader among the proletärförfattare (working-class novelists) who gained their initial fame in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1998 the Swedish television program Röda Rummet (The Red Room; named, of course, after Strindberg's famous novel) conducted a vote among viewers to decide "The Most Meaningful Swedish Book of the 20th Century." Moberg's Utvandrarromanen finished in first place, a fact that would have cheered Moberg since the general...