Ingrid Barrøy

Born on the Norwegian island that bears her name, Ingrid Barrøy's world is circumscribed by storm-scoured rocks and the moods of the sea by which her family lives and dies. But her father dreams of building a quay that will end their isolation, and her mother longs for the island of her youth, and the country faces its own sea change: the advent of a modern world, and all its unpredictability and violence. Brilliantly translated into English by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw, The Unseen is the first book in the Barrøy Trilogy and a moving exploration of family, resilience, and fate.

The highly anticipated sequel to International Booker and Dublin Impac Award-shortlisted The Unseen No-one can be alone on an island . . . But Ingrid is alone on Barrøy, the island that bears her name, and the war of her childhood has been replaced by a new, more terrible present: the Nazi occupation of Norway. When the bodies from a bombed vessel carrying Russian prisoners of war begin to wash up on the shore, Ingrid can't know that one will not only be alive, but could be the answer to a lifetime of loneliness-nor can she imagine what suffering she will endure in hiding her lover from the German authorities, or the journey she will face, after being wrenched from her island as consequence for protecting him, to return home. Or especially that, surrounded by the horrors of battle, among refugees fleeing famine and scorched earth, she will receive a gift, the value of which is beyond measure.

The third novel in a historical trilogy that began with the International Booker shortlisted The Unseen The journey had taken on its own momentum, it had become an autonomous, independent entity, she was searching for love, and was still happily unaware that truth is the first casualty of peace. The long war is over, and Ingrid Barroy leaves the island that bears her name to search for the father of her child. Alexander, the Russian captive who survived the sinking of prisoner ship the Rigel and found himself in Ingrid's arms, made an attempt to cross the mountains to Sweden. Ingrid will follow in his footsteps, carrying her babe in arms, the child's dark eyes the only proof that she ever knew him. Along the way, Ingrid's will encounter collaborators, partisans, refugees, deserters, slaves, and sinners, in a country that still bears the scars of defeat and occupation. And before her journey's end she will be forced to ask herself how well she knows the man she is risking everything to find.

The fourth installment in Roy Jacobsen's bestselling Barrøy Chronicles. After a long journey through Norway, Ingrid has returned to Barrøy, the island that bears her family name. The Second World War still casts its long shadow: former collaborators face cold shoulders, while others wish to leave the painful years in the past. When a boy arrives on the island, Ingrid assumes responsibility for him, and so he joins the Barrøy community, raised alongside Ingrid's own daughter, another child of war. As letters from distant friends arrive with news of a society undergoing dramatic changes, Ingrid must decide which stories to keep to herself, and which she should she bring to light. What kind of future does she imagine-for herself, and for the children?