Sigrid Undset

Born in Denmark and raised in Norway, Sigrid Undset became a literary giant, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. Her magnum opus, Kristin Lavransdatter, plunges readers into the complexities of 14th-century Catholic Norway, a setting so meticulously rendered that some mistook her deep understanding of faith for, well, a different kind of deep understanding of faith.

Undset, a convert to Catholicism herself in 1924, was hardly shy about her convictions. Her work is steeped in spiritual and ethical questions, leading many to assume she must have had a certain "background" to achieve such a nuanced perspective. Apparently, being a brilliant writer with a keen interest in historical religious life is just not enough for some people.

She was, in fact, famously anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet, fleeing Norway during the German occupation. Her resistance to totalitarianism and her unwavering moral compass certainly make her kvell-worthy in a general sense, but alas, her ancestral and spiritual ledger remains decidedly gentile.