To new readers, velkommen! For the past three years, Nordiska has hosted its own book club for fellow Nordic reading enthusiasts to connect and be in community with one another virtually. We invite you to expand your Nordic reading repertoire and discuss a variety of written works with us the last Thursday of each month.
Thank you to all those who were able to join us last month for our fantastic discussion on Out Stealing Horses (2003) by Per Petterson. For April we will be transported to the rural Norwegian coast in the critically acclaimed novel The Unseen (2020) by Roy Jacobsen.
April’s Pick: Journey to Barrøy Island
Written by Roy Jacobsen and translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw, The Unseen is the first novel in the Barrøy Chronicles which follow the intergenerational trials and triumphs of the Barrøy family in rural Norway. Set in the early 20th Century, The Unseen tells the story of Ingrid Barrøy who is born and raised on the isolated island of Barrøy. Her father has ambitions to make their home more accessible to the outside world by building a quay, but the sea has other plans. Though the small family takes pride in the natural beauty of their home, the elements and pressures of modernity place them in a uniquely precarious position.
In her review from The Guardian, Justine Jordan states The Unseen, “is 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.”
In an interview with CBC, author Roy Jacobsen explains that he grew up visiting and even lived on one of these isolated island as a fisherman. He heard all these stories about the hardships of coastal life and understood the significance of this largely unknown history. Jacobsen further explains part of why his novel is called The Unseen is because the stories of the costal women have been largely untold despite the coast’s importance to Norwegian heritage and economy. His mother was raised on once such single-family island and upon learning more about her life, he felt an obligation to bring these stories to life.
For more background information on the novel, check out the full CBC podcast interview of Roy Jacobsen by Eleanor Wachtel: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-77-writers-and-company/clip/15880811-from-norse-sagas-family-sagas-roy-jacobsen
Virtual Book Club Meeting Information
We will be meeting to discuss this work via Zoom on Thursday April 26th at 6:00pm PST. You can find the Zoom invitation link here to register for the meeting ahead of time and/or keep a look out on our social media sites for an invitation. The passcode to join zoom is “nordiska“.
Get Your Copy of The Unseen
You can purchase your copy of The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen on Nordiska’s website by following the above links, or come and visit us in historic downtown Poulsbo. We would love to see you in person as well!
As a thank you for purchasing your book with us, Nordiska is offering a 15% discount on the book club pick of the month by using the code: bookclub22. Happy reading!
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