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The Invisible (excerpts)
Roy Jacobsen
Roy Jacobsen (b. Oslo, 1954) is a
novelist and short-story writer.
This novel,
De Usynlige
, is a #1
bestseller in Norway. It is the story of
Ingrid Barrøy and her family living
on a small island on the North-
Western coast of Norway, in the first
half of the 20th Century, when Norway consisted mostly of
farmers, some of them extremely poor. The family lives off
of their meagre land, they have livestock, they fish in the
sea and use whatever the waves wash ashore. A life
somewhere else is unthinkable for them – this is their
paradise on Earth.
De Usynlige
is based on a true story, inspired by people
Jacobsen knew in childhood.
Translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw.