Alone on Baraway Island, Ingrid lives after everyone has left, roaming the ruins, repairing what can be repaired, and catching fish and bodies that wash up on the island's shores. The young woman struggles to hide a big secret that could put her in danger, as the country witnesses the final months of World War II.
In this novel, Roy Jacobsen completes the story of Barawe Island, which began with "The Invisibles", with his delicate narration, natural images, and brief sentences that hide the truest and hottest feelings behind them.
“White Sea” is a novel about new beginnings that make their way from the ashes of a devastating war, about friendships and love, the faces of those passing by and the dead, and about people who remain where they are in the face of war, bidding farewell to the departed and receiving those returning, and monitoring the passing of days and the succession of seasons.
Ingrid Barøy was born on a small island off the northwestern coast of Norway, an island inhabited by only one family, living out their ambitions and dreams that collide with the boundaries of the land and the weather, and the mercy of the sea, which provides a living, but also brings death.
Father Hans dreams of building a pier connecting them to the mainland, but contact with the outside world comes at a price, which Ingrid will know fully after she grows up and goes to work there for a wealthy family and take care of her two children. With the couple disappearing one day, she finds no choice but to return to her home with the two children, and thus the island’s population increases in number, and a different life begins, especially as Norway awakens to a wider world, a modern world that is volatile and can be cruel.
“The Invisibles” is a profound interrogation of freedom and destiny, written with delicate narration and brief, simple, calm sentences tinged with poetic tensions, creating a painting of natural cinema that makes the “invisible” clearly visible.
