Nobody can leave an island. An island is a cosmos in a nutshell, where the stars slumber in the grass beneath the snow. But occasionally someone tries...
From now on I'm keeping a record of who recommends books to me and when, because how grateful I am however and by whomsoever The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen, published by MacLehose Press, was sent onto my radar. If it was you, thank you. I bought a copy immediately.
Published as De Usynlige in Norway in 2013, the book was a huge best-seller and we are fortunate to now have an English translation by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw.
From the MacLehose website this...
'Ingrid Barrøy is born on an island that bears her name - a holdfast for a single family, their livestock, their crops, their hopes and dreams.
Her father dreams of building a quay that will connect them to the mainland, but closer ties to the wider world come at a price. Her mother has her own dreams - more children, a smaller island, a different life - and there is one question Ingrid must never ask her.
Island life is hard, a living scratched from the dirt or trawled from the sea, so when Ingrid comes of age, she is sent to the mainland to work for one of the wealthy families on the coast.
But Norway too is waking up to a wider world, a modern world that is capricious and can be cruel. Tragedy strikes, and Ingrid must fight to protect the home she thought she had left behind.'
The late Eileen Battersby, the Irish literary critic who died so tragically in a car accident just two days before Christmas, rated The Unseen as
'Easily among the best books I have ever read'
And I'm certainly moving it onto the Best Reads of 2019 shelf, and from thence to the Best Books Ever shelf.
Just a single family live on the Norwegian island of Barrøy. Hans and Maria with their daughter Ingrid, Hans's sister Barbro and his father Martin along with three sundry others who eventually find themselves living as part of the family for reasons various. Life is harsh, the weather is brutal, hardships abound, and merely eking out an existence in such an extreme environment takes every ounce of courage, energy and kroner that the family have. It's not immediately clear when the narrative is set, and indeed the outside world is remote, the news a million miles away, but a couple of clues suggested the late 1920s, early 1930s to me
I rapidly became an islander as I read, greatly helped by my other read, Adam Nicolson's Sea Room, giving much thought to island life and the qualities required to stay the course. In the case of Family Barrøy (they bear the name of the island, it is truly theirs). They will need and display resilience, resourcefulness, pragmatism and great fortitude as they deal with unforeseen threats and many-a disaster. Hans rebuilding of an outhouse over and over again, salvaging the remains after a storm, often from neighbouring islands, is a lesson in perseverance that makes our whinge about losing the greenhouse twice (and joking that we'd find it at Lands End) seem a bit lame in comparison.
And the precious commodities on the island too... wood, chairs, fresh water and the eiderdown. How many times did that high-quality eiderdown comfort and warm, and provide refuge in times of sadness or crisis. There will be danger and setbacks, illness and grief; eiderdown to the rescue.
Watching young Ingrid grow and mature in this secluded and limited environment is both fascinating and revealing. Sent to work as a nursemaid to the children of a supposedly wealthy family on a neighbouring island it becomes clear that, intelligent, capable and practical though she is, she finds other people and reading their behaviours confusing. Her limited experience with and exposure to others offering no immediate solutions to an intractable situation that will have far-reaching consequences, effectively she must start from scratch. Fortunately Ingrid is a quick learner.
Slowly the 'unseen' of the title becomes visible and in many guises.
And the significance of the flotsam and jetsam that washes up on the shores after a storm, especially the messages in bottles...
'mythical vehicles of yearning, hope and unfulfilled lives...'
Like time capsules, tiny investments of hope and expectation with uncertain and unpredictable consequences. Had Maria and Ingrid been able to send their own messages I wondered what they would have said.
It was all enough to make me read The Unseen slowly and in instalments, considering and pondering its depths whilst wondering what didn't I know about Roy Jacobsen, and had he written more books.
Yes he has, and I have The Burnt-out Town of Miracles lined up and was also delighted to read the The Unseen is the first in a series of novels so there will be more Family Barrøy to come.
As always, if you have read this please do share your thoughts in comments...
And having been to the Arctic recently with Michael Palin's superb reading of his book Erebus, do you have any more atmospheric Norwegian or Scandinavian reading suggestions...
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