Kate’s 2¢: “The unseen: by Jacobsen, Roy;, Donald; Bartlett, Don

“The unseen: by Jacobsen, Roy;, Donald; Bartlett, Don

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   The 53 short chapters follow one family’s existence of a small island in Norway. The descriptions are rich, vivid, and memorable. The narrative arc is straight forward, linear and sheds light on the trials and struggles of a single, small family, their hopes and tragedies.

From WIDIPEDIA:Roy Jacobsen grew up in a suburb of Oslo located in the Groruddalen valley. In his teens, Jacobsen was a member of the criminal “Årvoll gang”. At age 16 he was arrested by the police and kept in solitary confinement for 35 days. He was subsequently convicted of among other things weapons offences and theft, and given a six-month suspended sentence.[1]

He held a number of occupations, even subsequent to his debut as a novelist in 1982. Since 1990 he has been a full-time author. During the years 1979 – 1986 he lived at his mother’s homestead at Solfjellsjøen in the municipality Dønna in the Northern Norwegian county Nordland, and both the background of his mother as well as his own upbringing in Groruddalen were central themes of his breakthrough novel Seierherrene from 1991. This novel has described perhaps more directly than any other Norwegian work of fiction to the Norwegian public a phenomenon known in Norwegian culture as “the great class journey” – the upward motion through social strata experienced by large segments of the Norwegian population during a few generations in the 20th century. From the perspective of one family and spanning two generations the living conditions of the common man in Norway during the past 80 years is depicted, showing the tremendous pace with which an agrarian and proletarian society with its inherently rigid framework was transformed into a post-industrial, technological education and welfare society with a plethora of opportunities, however also presenting a newly created sense of identity for many of its citizens. Having proved himself in this fashion, Jacobsen became a natural choice as the biographer of Trygve Bratteli, the former Labour Party prime minister (1995).[citation needed]

He is a member of the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature.[2]

Don Bartlett is the translator behind some of the most read and talked about Norwegian books of recent years. From Jo Nesbø’s successful crime books to the titanic introspection of Karl Ove Knausgård and his seminal My Struggle series. • Fangeliv – short stories (1982)

Donal Shaw is a translator with a slew of books he’s translated and/or written.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The unseen DB99394

Jacobsen, Roy; Shaw, Donald; Bartlett, Don. Reading time: 6 hours, 9 minutes.

Read by Stephen Van Doren.

Historical Fiction

As Ingrid Barrøy grows up on a tiny island off the Norwegian coast, her parents dream of different things. Father Hans wants to build a quay to draw more visitors, while mother Maria dreams of the island of her youth. Translated from the original 2013 Norwegian edition. Some strong language. 2016.

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