The Unseen | 
so-soI REALLY wanted this to be a 5 star read so that I had a new series to dive into. But, while I typically love historical character driven novels with a focus on setting (especially nature), this one just frankly became boring near the end. I don‘t feel compelled to pick up the second in the series. 😩
Nosey Nate has his schnoz right up in there.
Ingrid stands in woollen lugg boots on a floor of glass midway between the island and Moltholmen and beneath her she can see seaweed and fish and shells in a summer landscape. Sea urchins and starfish and black rocks in white sand and fish darting through a swaying forest of kelp, the ice is a magnifying glass, as clear as air, she is floating on the water and six years old, it is impossible not to walk on the ice once it has formed.
pickMy first 5 star read of the year, this novel is the first of a trilogy set on the harsh, bleak, cold, rocky islands of the northern Norwegian coast. Life is hard, but the taciturn islanders are resilient and ingenious. I loved this book, and have gone on to read the 2nd in the trilogy, White Shadow, which I also loved.
I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join the fun if you want.
This is day 238 #bookstoread #tbrpile #bookstagram
#Bookreport #weeklyforecast. #mashup. I unexpectedly loved The Unseen. It is book 1 in a trilogy but I haven‘t been able to find the rest in translation. The Book of Lost Names was good but the mother in the story kept me 😡. I liked The Young Wan even better than the previous 3 in the series. Enjoying my Code Name: Helene for #Bookspin and just started Paragon Hotel for #doublespin. It was a good reading week! 💜📚💜
pickAbsolutely beautiful. A story of a Norwegian family living on an island off the coast. It was gentle, heartwarming, devastating and joyous. It was just the read I needed!🥰
I‘m REALLY excited for box #86 of Powell‘s #indiespensable subscription! This Norwegian book sounds perfect for now.
pickFinally finished! Loved the book. It was at times slow paced but it felt right for this kind of story. Especially liked to read about Ingrid Barrøy and her path to empowerment. Looking forward to read more about her in the next book in the series White Ocean. #norwegian
The library‘s book bingo with modern Norwegian classics 📚 I have read only two so far... Have you read any of these @AnneCecilie ? #litsyloveslibraries #bibliotek
My local library is celebrating Bokåret 2019 :500 years of printed books in Norway. They have put together a collection of books they think are modern classics. The novel The Unseen is one of those books ? #litsyloveslibraries #bibliotek
The islanders in The Unseen are completely dependent on their boat Færing to survive. The boat is like a miniature Viking ship and built in the same way. Yesterday during lunch I talked with a fellow teacher about this book. It turns out she is a trained færing shipbuilder! What a coincidence! ? This is not a common profession at all and definitely not among women! Impressive ?? photo from: https://lokalhistoriewiki.no/Færing
With a sick two-year-old there has not been much time for reading lately. Finally a day with good weather so we can take a trip outside. He‘s sleeping, I‘m listening! ☀️❤️ #litsywalker
Whatever is washed ashore on an island belongs to the finder, and the islanders find a lot. It might be cork or barrels or hemp or driftwood or flotage –green and brown glass balls to stop fishing nets sinking... There might be a wooden toy for Ingrid, there might be fish boxes and oars, gaffs, bow rollers, bailers, poles, planks and the remains of boats. ❤️ Love treasure hunting on my local beach. Unfortunately, I almost only find plastic...
Listening to The Unseen while walking along the beach... ❄️🌤 #audiowalk #litsywalk
My next pick for #adventrecommends is probably not so well known here on Litsy. It‘s the first book in a trilogy set in North of Norway right before, under and after WW2 about family dynamics living quite isolated on an island. This first book got shortlisted for the #manbooker. Lovely trilogy close to my heart as the story is quite similar to the story of my grandmother.
#Favourites
#AdventRecommends Day 15
so-soThere's no way to rate this one satisfactorily. The prose had a beautiful clarity and it faithfully renders a lost time and way of life on remote Norwegian islands. The characters are sharply cut and there's a breath of wistful air. And yet I would have been happy for it to be over at half the length. The sparseness of the prose began to grate and the sober tone made it increasingly difficult to summon interest for even the more unusual events
so-soI finished this book last night. It is a beautifully written work about a family growing up on a rural island and battling both the natural environment and the ever changing social forces that surround them. If you like rural stories then you will probably like this work. But, for me it felt hollow. It felt that there was something missing.
I'm an introvert, working in a extremely extrovert profession and environment ... so, #cominghome for me is all about in the picture. Recharging in solitude with my therapist 😊 #dogsoflitsy #petsoflitsy
Book in the tag is from this year #manbookerinternationalprize2017 shortlist and is about the meaning of the home, isolation and loss (family, living in the small island). Not my favorite, but still interesting.
#lyricalapril
so-soThe book 'without a plot', built on the atmosphere and limited to the five-member family, which are living on the small island and they're struggling with their inner demons and with the island. Nicely built atmosphere, but book as a whole – forgettable ...
Roy Jacobsen - #Norway 🇳🇴
#readingtheworld #readaroundtheworld
Book nine from #ManBookerInternationalPrize2017 longlist.
Roy Jacobsen - #Norway 🇳🇴
#readingtheworld #readaroundtheworld
so-so4th #BookishOlympics book! This is the kind of story I usually like: life in the north (in this case on an island), harsh conditions, a climate most people have never even experienced. In addition, it was read in a northern dialect! But I kept missing stuff, like PEOPLE DYING, so I obviously didn't connect as much as I would have liked with this book... Not sure I'll continue with the series.
This is my current audiobook, but it's too slow and uneventful for an audiobook! I keep forgetting to listen! Anyone else who also has this problem?
