This is the historical fiction story of Leif Ericsson and his quest to discover new lands. Cleverly hidden in a history lesson at a boy's boarding school, teacher Callender describes Leif's life's adventures. Callender is back after six years to teach U.S. History and finds a clever way to keep the students engaged despite the headmaster's disapproval. [Spoiler: there is a section of the story where Leif warns Thorgunna to keep her ladies away from Leif's men. It is hinted that Leif worries the men could rape the fair maidens. Thorgunna replies that Leif gives sound advice because her ladies have been without variety...]
Vinland the Good comes to us in the form of a treatment for a script as if Shute planned it as a movie or theater production. Stage directions and props describe each scene before narratives begin. Themes in Vinland the Good include forgiveness (when King Olaf lifts Leif's stigma of being the son of an outlaw and teaches Leif the art of shipbuilding) and the spread of Christianity. You could also call Vinland the Good a tragic love story as Leif and Thorgunna's relationship blossoms into love and loyalty. ( )

Written as a screenplay concept by one of my favorite authors [a:Nevil Shute|21477|Nevil Shute|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206158172p2/21477.jpg], [b:Vinland the Good|107322|Vinland the Good|Nevil Shute|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171570823s/107322.jpg|103447] was a book I unexpectedly couldn't put down. I picked it up at the library thinking it was an unusual topic for Shute, but its themes revisit those encountered in [b:An Old Captivity|107299|An Old Captivity|Nevil Shute|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171570787s/107299.jpg|1039549]. I opened it last night predicting I'd read a few pages before turning in and read on into the night. I woke around 2 AM and picked it up again. I turned the pages til I reached the last, relishing every moment! The story starts as young Major Callendar aged 27 returns from WWII to take up his teaching position again at an English public schcool that he'd left for the war after only a year as an unremarkable instructor. The headmaster and his two assistant masters all over age sixty arrange the school's schedule so that upon Callendar's return he'll have to teach the school's new required course in American history that none of the older men want to teach. War, world travel, and two stints as a prisoner of war have changed Callendar from the uncertain young man who left the school six years before. Major Callendar starts by asking his students if any of them can tell him who first discovered america? Unbeknownst to Callendar, the headmaster is uncertain of his new instructor's ability and he listens in through a crack in the adjoining room's communicating door. What the headmaster hears from the room next door is not the story of John Cabot and Christopher Columbus that everyone expected.When one of the students questions the new teacher's verson of history, remarking that "it says Cabot in the book" Callendar answers back, "well, the book's wrong then" and so begins a story of Norse sea-going exploration and settlement that starts in AD 1002, ( )