Roy Jacobsen (1) (1954–)

Review to follow.

The Unseen is about a family living on their own small island in early 20th century northern Norway. They fish and farm and trade and survive until calamity hits. The young daughter must keep things going while the world changes around their unchanging existence. It’s classic sparely told Norwegian lit with an element of found family— a warm and hopeful book.

Wonderful writing—but to this reader, a prolonged interlude of tracking troop movements amounted to an enervating blur—which may in fact have been the point.