Margit Walsø
The Queen's Word

Queen Marie-Antoinette is forced to leave Versailles with her royal family in the month of October 1789. She does not know if she will ever return to her home and if life will ever be the same. She comforts her children and says they will soon come home, but in her thoughts she doubts it.

A century later a young Finnish woman, Alma Söderhjelm, studies the French history of the revolutionary years. Alma lives in nervous times as the young nation Finland strives for freedom from the Russian tsar. In these wary circumstances she makes a defining choice. Alma traces Marie Antoinette’s secret love life when she finds the diaries of a Swedish aristocrat. She decides to bring the full drama into the light.

Through months in house arrest, a last joyful summer at Saint-Cloud, a dramatic flight towards the French border and the family’s final days together in Le Temple we follow Marie-Antoinette in her fight to protect what she cherishes more than her own life: Her own children and her secret love for the nobleman Axel von Fersen.

These two women live extraordinary lives in revolutionary times. One born into careless wealth and aristocracy, but also to duty, etiquette and rituals. The other pays a high price for her freedom.

Margit Walsø

Christian Elgvin

Margit Walsø (b. 1968) had her literary debut in 2007 with the historical novel “Dear Voltaire”, a story about the mathematician Emilie du Chatelet and her passionate relation with Voltaire. Walsø’s writing reveals a sincere interest for European history, especially the century of the enlightenment.
Margit Walsø comes from a small industrial town in Western Norway called Sunndalsøra. She studied both Science and Literature before entering the publishing business. Today she lives in Oslo with her husband and two daughters.
Walsø has worked as publisher in Det norske Samlaget for many years as head of the literary department. She has published both Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children’s books and Academic books. Today Margit Walsø is director of NORLA, Norwegian Literature Abroad.