Roy Jacobsen – författare

I ett kargt klimat i ett nordnorskt kustområde utspelas Roy Jacobsens nya roman, som blivit en makalös försäljningsframgång i hemlandet, 143 000 sålda ex, och av många hyllats som hans bästa bok. Det är en roman som baseras på verkliga händelser mellan 1913-1928 och platsen är den vackra ön Barrøya som ligger vid Helgelandskusten.Här bor Hans Barrøy, 35 år, hans hustru Maria, hans åldrande far och hans lillasyster Barbro som inte tycks duga mycket till. Men det här är romanen om Ingrid, som vi får följa från dagen hon döps fram till tjugoårsåldern då hon blivit en stark och självständig ung kvinna. Av sin mor får hon lära sig att sköta ett hushåll, av sin far får hon lära sig vad det innebär att växa upp på en ö och vad naturen förväntar sig av människorna som bor där. En plats i världen som präglas av osynliggörande, fattigdom och fiske. Och genom Ingrids fantastiska blick får vi ett stycke människokännedom som skapat en av den moderna nordiska litteraturens vackraste klasskildringar.

"Jacobsen har genrens förmåga att göra historien och de stora samhälleliga skeendena konkreta och nyanserade." DN

Efter en lång resa är Ingrid tillbaka på Barrøya. Livet återgår till det vanliga men kriget fortsätter att kasta långa skuggor över hela landet. Kollaboratörer ska bestraffas hårt även om många istället bara vill lämna hemskheterna bakom sig.

En dag kommer Mattias, en liten pojke, till ön och kort därefter försvinner hans far på ett mystiskt sätt. Ingrid och hennes dotter Kaja tar hand om pojken som snart blir en del av öns kollektiv. Men vem är han egentligen? Varifrån kommer han?

Bara en mor är fjärde boken i berättelsen om Ingrid på Barrøya, en serie som inleddes med De osynliga och som sedan fortsatte med Vitt hav och Fartygets ögon. Det är romaner om en liten ö i Nordnorge, men också berättelsen om en osedvanligt modig och stark kvinna som är villig att offra allt för att rädda sin familj och sitt ursprung.

"Jacobsens prosa blir små vardagsmirakel" Jönköpings-Posten

"Gestalterna reser sig från sidorna som vänner" Västerbottens-Kuriren

"ett poetiskt men ytterst sparsmakat språk som med små, väl avvägda medel gör människorna och deras ö så levande och lockande att jag önskar jag kunde stanna där för evigt" SVT-Nyheter

Året är 1944, kriget går mot sitt slut. Ingrid återvänder till sin barndomsö i tron att hon är helt ensam. Hon lägger ut nät och rustar inför vintern, går runt över ägorna som när hon var ett litet barn och hoppas att hennes familj snart ska få mötas igen. Hon går mellan husets tomma rum med ett ständigt växande tvivel - var det verkligen klokt att åka tillbaka till ön? Så sker något som förändrar allt. Ett oväntat möte som under några intensiva vinterveckor får Ingrid att se helt annorlunda på sin tillvaro på den vackra men karga ön Barrøya.Vitt hav är en fristående fortsättning på Roy Jacobsens stora succé De osynliga som kom på svenska 2014. "Det är en oerhört fängslande berättelse, osentimental, poetisk och gripande", skrev till exempel Ingalill Mosander i Aftonbladet.

I Roy Jacobsens nya roman De ovärdiga följer vi en grupp pojkar och flickor från ett hyreshus i östra utkanten av Oslo under den tyska ockupationen.

Ungdomarna lever i fattigdom och måste kämpa för att överleva. En kamp som gör att de aldrig missar ett tillfälle att luras och stjäla, att förfalska dokument och att begå inbrott i de fina kvarteren på jakt efter saker som går att sälja på den svarta marknaden. De drar sig inte heller för att stjäla från tyskar i hög maktställning, vilket ytterligare ökar risken för upptäckt och hård bestraffning.

De ovärdiga är en brutal och varm skildring av en miljö, tid och vardag som hittills varit nästan frånvarande i krigshistorien. Den mångfaldigt prisbelönade Roy Jacobsen har skrivit en tankeväckande och underhållande roman som ytterligare befäster hans position som en av de stora europeiska författarna.

Den tyske vetenskapsmannen och äventyraren Fritz Dörries (1852-1953) uppsökte jordens mest ogästvänliga platser där han fångade vilda djur och samlade växter och fjärilar, som sändes till museer i Europa. Han korsade hela Japan till fots samtidigt som det pågick krig i landet och reste med släde tvärs genom det sibiriska islandskapet. Ett liv av farliga strapatser, kyla och lidande, men också av enastående skönhet.Roy Jacobsen är en av våra stora nordiska författare. I denna kritikerhyllade och vackra roman skriver han Dörries historia, i en fantastisk berättelse om en försvunnen värld, om natur, urfolk och nya upptäckter, från en tid då det fortfarande fanns vita fläckar på kartan.Skriven tillsammans med Jacobsens hustru, lingvisten Anneliese Pitz.

''A compact and compelling novel by an iconic Norwegian writer...[and] thanks to Don Bartlett and Don Shaw''s crisp translation, we see it obliquely'' - IndependentSet in Finland in 1939, this is the story of one man who remains in his home town when everyone else has fled, burning down their houses in their wake, before the invading Russians arrive. Timo remains behind because he can''t imagine life anywhere else, doing anything else besides felling the trees near his home. This is a novel about belonging - a tale of powerful and forbidden friendships forged during a war, of unexpected bravery and astonishing survival instincts. The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles is not a novel about war, but about the lives of ordinary people dragged into war, each of whom only wants to find the path back home. Roy Jacobsen uses the dramatic natural landscape of light and darkness, fire-blazing heat and life-robbing cold to spectacular effect.

The sequel to the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted The Unseen"A gifted writer, stylish, laconic and imaginative" Paul Owen, TLS"A beautiful sequel to The Unseen, set around the remote & unforgiving island of Barrøy during WWII. A note-perfect combination of taciturnity, austerity, passion and weather. Sublime" - Rónán Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry PaulNo-one can be alone on an island . . . But Ingrid is alone on Barrøy, the island that bears her name, while the war of her childhood has been replaced by a new more terrible war and Norway is under the Nazi boot.When the bodies from a bombed troopship begin to wash up on the shore, Ingrid cannot know that one will be alive and warm enough to erase a lifetime of loneliness.She cannot know what she will suffer in protecting her lover from the Germans and their Norwegian collaborators, nor the journey she will face, wrenched from her island once more, to return home.Or that, amid the suffering of war, among refugees fleeing famine and scorched-earth retreats, she will be given a gift whose value is beyond measure.Reviews for The Unseen"Easily among the best books I have ever read" Eileen Battersby, Irish Times"The Unseen is a blunt, brilliant book" Tom Graham, Guardian"The Unseen is a towering achievement that would be a deserved Booker International winner" Charlie Connolly, New EuropeanTranslated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw

The third novel in a historical trilogy that began with the International Booker shortlisted The Unseen "Taken together, Jacobsen has given us an epic of Norway''s experience of the first half of the 20th century that is subtle and moving" David Mills, Sunday Times"Jacobsen can make almost anything catch the light . . . One of Norway''s greatest writers on the working class" Times Literary SupplementThe 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.Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don ShawDon Bartlett is the acclaimed translator of books by Karl Ove Knausgård, Jo Nesbø and Per Petterson.Don Shaw, co-translator, is a teacher of Danish and author of the standard Danish-Thai/Thai-Danish dictionaries.With the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union

Finn lives with his mother in a working-class suburb of Oslo. It is 1961, before oil, before anyone had any money at all. One day a mysterious half-sister appears, turning their lives upside down - why is she so different from every other child? When his mother takes a lodge, Finn is enthralled by the bad language and Bakelite T.V. he brings with him, but the newcomer has his own plans for the family. And throughout the long summer, Finn cannot help feeling his mother is keeping a powerful secret from him, pushing them further and further apart.

Siberia, to me, is a fairy-tale land.Fritz Dörries set out on his first trip to Eastern Siberia in 1877, when there were still blank spaces on maps of the world. Travelling alone or with his brothers, he climbed mountains, traversed great rivers, explored remote islands and crossed treacherous lakes of ice, always with one purpose: to augment man''s knowledge of the natural world. Bears, tigers, vipers, bandits, stormy seas, frostbite, ice chasms fathoms deep - every danger was faced head on and overcome. And yet he remained defenceless against the charms of the landscape, and the animals, birds and butterflies he found there.Through his twenty-two years in Siberia, Dörries collected a wealth of essential material for scientific institutions, fundamental to our understanding of fauna and flora. This account of his adventures, set down for his daughters in his ninetieth year, and adapted for publication by Roy Jacobsen and Anneliese Pitz, is his second great legacy.Translated from the Norwegian by Seán Kinsella

The fourth novel in a historical series that began with the International Booker-shortlisted The Unseen "Taken together, Jacobsen has given us an epic of Norway''s experience of the first half of the 20th century that is subtle and moving" David Mills, Sunday Times"Jacobsen can make almost anything catch the light . . . One of Norway''s greatest writers on the working class" Times Literary SupplementA childless island is no island at all.Ingrid Marie Barrøy has returned to the island that bears her name, bringing up her daughter with the other children that came with the war, who will someday raise their own children until an island that was empty is singing once more with life.And soon another will arrive, a child of the war and an orphan of the peace, whom Ingrid will fight to make her own, and whose interests may, in time, collide with those of certain others on the island, forcing her to make a choice she will long regret.The sea brings the island all it has - herring for salting, eider ducks for down - but Ingrid knows, has alwaysknown, that one day it may wish to take something back. But until that day, she continues to live by one simple truth:There is no limit to what you can do with an island, the imagination sets the only limits, as with the sea.Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don ShawReviews for The Unseen"Even by his high standards, his magnificent new novel The Unseen is Jacobsen''s finest to date, as blunt as it is subtle and is easily among the best books I have ever read" Eileen Battersby, Irish Times"A beautifully crafted novel . . . Quite simply a brilliant piece of work . . . Rendered beautifully into English by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw, The Unseen is a towering achievement that would be a deserved Booker International winner" Charlie Connelly, New European."A 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" Justine Jordan, Guardian"The subtle translation, with its invented dialect, conveys a timeless, provincial voice . . . The Unseen is a blunt, brilliant book" Tom Graham, Financial Times.

"Jacobsen can make almost anything catch the light . . . One of Norway''s greatest writers on the working class" Times Literary SupplementThey''re a gang without a name - Olav, Carl, Roar, Jan and Vidar - teenage boys growing up in a working-class area of Oslo under the shadow of Nazi occupation. They live in poverty but earn a crust by creatively swindling their fellow citizens, falsifying documents and stealing like magpies. And they don''t shy away from targeting the Enemy, either.But everything changes when Carl''s father hands him a secret map and a German password, just hours before he''s taken away by the Quisling police - only to return in a coffin. And when Olav''s father also disappears, the gang come to see that they are caught up in something far more serious than their usual petty crimes.Taking in love, death, betrayal and tragedy, The Unworthy is the latest masterpiece from Roy Jacobsen, author of the International Booker-shortlisted The Unseen. It shines a light on a brutal aspect of the war rarely explored in fiction, and every sentence is imbued with decades of accumulated wisdom from a writer who had his own brushes with the law in his youth.Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw

*Winner of the prestigious Norwegian Booksellers'' Prize**A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection (Holiday 2011)*A glorious evocation of a Norwegian childhood in the early sixties by an author short-listed for the 2009 Dublin IMPAC AwardLittle Finn lives with his mother in an apartment in a working-class suburb of Oslo. Life is a struggle to make ends meet, but he does not mind. When his mother decides to take a lodger to help pay the bills, he watches with interest as she freshens up their small apartment with new wallpaper and a sofa paid for in installments. He befriends their new male lodger, whose television is more tempting to him than his mother would like. When a half sister whom he never knew joins the household, Finn takes her under his wing over an everlasting summer on Håøya Island. But he can''t understand why everyone thinks his new sister is so different from every other child. Nor can he fathom his mother''s painful secret, one that pushes them ever farther apart. As summer comes to a close, Finn must attempt to grasp the incomprehensible adult world and his place within it. Child Wonder is a powerful and unsentimental portrait of childhood. Roy Jacobsen, through the eyes of a child, has produced an immensely uplifting novel that shines with light and warmth.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the Dublin Literary Award"An absolute masterpiece. Packed with understated emotion, stunning from beginning to end" Courttia Newland, author of A River Called Time"A masterful and moving work of literature" Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies"Easily among the best books I have ever read" Eileen Battersby, Irish Times"A beautifully crafted novel . . . Quite simply a brilliant piece of work" Charlie Connolly, New European"A blunt, brilliant book" Tom Graham, Financial TimesNobody 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 . . . 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.Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw