White Shadow

Description

The highly anticipated sequel to International Booker and Dublin Impac Award-shortlistedThe UnseenNo-one can be alone on an island But Ingrid is alone on Barry, the island that bears her name, and the war of her childhood has been replaced by a new, more terrible present: the Nazi occupation of Norway.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 cant know that one will not only be alive, but could be the answer to a lifetime of lonelinessnor 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 highly anticipated follow-up to Roy Jacobsens International Booker and Dublin Impac Award-shortlistedThe Unseen, aNew York TimesNew and Noteworthy book,White Shadowis a vividly observed exploration of conflict, love, and human endurance.Praise forWhite ShadowRicher, even more provocative The heroine of Roy JacobsensWhite Shadowknows every inch of her home turf, a tiny island off the coast of northern Norway that her people have inhabited for generations. To get a full sense of what its like to subsist on Barry and how 35-year-old Ingrid comes to be living there alone, it helps to readThe Unseen, the first volume in Jacobsens trilogy, which has also been translated by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw. But even without that background, the novels account of Ingrids experience of World War II is unsettlingly easy to follow.New York TimesWhite Shadowretains many ofThe Unseens pleasures, not least Jacobsens clean, spare prose a noble tribute to the human struggle for decency.Daniel Marc Janes,Times Literary SupplementWith every sentence in his new novel, Roy Jacobsen shows how his characters carve their morality out of the dried driftwood found on the small islands of war-ravaged Norway.White Shadowis yet another masterpiece by Jacobsen, who continues in this short novel to track the vicissitudes of the life of his young heroine Ingrid Barry White Shadowis a powerful psychological novel.World Literature TodaySeldom do we find a protagonist who pushes against her confinement as subtlety and deftly as Ingrid does, and who allows herself, while trapped in circumstances that are beyond her control, to be so open, inquisitive, and even loving. InWhite ShadowJacobson offers a portrait of a woman who is single-minded but not rigidly so, purposeful but not devoid of feeling The intensity of feeling just beyond the actions described, and the effort itself of forging language to capture their evanescent reality, seems like a literary accomplishment in the family of more overtly sophisticated novelists like Thomas Bernhard or W. G. Sebald.Book PostAn unsentimental story that combines the cosmic with bracing emotional austerity.Claire Allfree,Daily MailDisarmingly plainspoken narration brings into sharp relief both individuals and a world in wartime crisis.Kirkus Reviews(starred review)A powerful read.David Mills,Sunday TimesA beautifully written and profoundly moving exploration of conflict, love and human endurance.St. Catherines StandardThe turbulent outside world laps at weathered, ancient shores in Jacobsens stunning follow-up toThe Unseen(one of the great unsung masterpieces of last year) In this elegant, sparse novel, every moment is laden with significance as its denizens teeter between brutal memory and resilient hope. This is a book to be savored.Sam Kaas, Norwich Bookstore (Norwich, VT)Welcome back to the land of silence, and harsh contrasts. The island of Barry is still an unknown place that has almost forgotten time; but war is edging onto its shores and will be forever changed when Ingrid discovers that true peace is fleeting and comes at a cost. This novel of quiet beauty will remind you of a time before that you may not remember but wont soon forget.Shannon Alden, Literati BookstoreA stoic companion to the first novel in this series,The Unseen, which can be read singly or in tandem as novels that are passionately bleak and equally universal in their grasp for dignity and hope. Jacobsen has mastered the tenacity of the human spirit. May we all do as well.Todd Miller, Arcadia Books (Spring Green, WI)Praise forThe UnseenEven by his high standards, his magnificent new novelThe Unseenis Jacobsens finest to date, as blunt as it is subtle and is easily among the best books I have ever read.Irish TimesA beautifully crafted novel . . . Quite simply a brilliant piece of work . . . Rendered beautifully into English by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw,The Unseenis a towering achievement that would be a deserved Booker International winner.New EuropeanA profound interrogation of freedom and fate, as well as a fascinating portrait of a vanished time, written in prose as clear and washed clean as the world after a storm.The GuardianThe subtle translation, with its invented dialect, conveys a timeless, provincial voice . . .The Unseenis a blunt, brilliant book.Financial Times