Roy Jacobsen is present
Location
Category
Price
practical information
would you like to connect to the author? Ask your question before 26 March via connect@passaporta.be or during the event via the chat.
Language
Roy Jacobsen has long been considered one of Norway’s greatest writers. His work has recently drawn international attention thanks to the many translations of his epic about a Norwegian family trying to carve out an existence in a tumultuous twentieth century. But his books are not just about hardship on a remote island. They also ask questions about the collective memory: How do we choose to remember war, guilt and collaboration? And what remains unseen? Writer and reviewer Roderik Six asks these and more pressing questions.
Another Norwegian
Jacobsen, who has written novels, short stories and children’s books, is considered one of Norway’s leading writers. Like his younger compatriot Matias Faldbakken, who will also be present at the festival, he won the prestigious Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature.
Prizes
Jacobsen’s novel The Unseen has been translated in more than 20 countries and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. The book is the first of a four-part cycle set on the island of Barrøy off the coast of Norway. White Shadow and Eyes of the Rigel are the second and third volumes to have been translated into English, with the fourth volume still to be translated.
Island visitors
The cycle focuses on Ingrid, the protagonist. In The Unseen, her father dreams of building a wharf that connects their island to the mainland. Yet, being so close to the wider world will not be without consequences. In White Shadow, Norway is suffering under the yoke of Nazi occupation. During a heavy storm, bodies from a sunken German warship wash up on the small island, with a survivor among them: the Russian prisoner of war Alexander.
Passa Porta, De Bezige Bij, Royal Norwegian Embassy, NORLA, KVS
picture roy jacobsen © agnete brun
Coming soon at
NLHet debuut: leesclub met Maaike Neuville
Actrice Maaike Neuville debuteert als auteur met de roman Zij. Ga tijdens onze leesclub in gesprek met de schrijfster over deze urgente roman over machtsverhoudingen waarin de rol van dader en slachtoffer diffuus is.
Ukraine writes back: Oksana Zabuzhko and Victoria Belim
On 24 February 2022, the world got a rude awakening: Russia had invaded neighbouring Ukraine. For the West, it was the start of a news cycle; for Ukrainians, yet another dark milestone in a long, bitter history. Writers Oksana Zabuzhko and Victoria Belim poignantly bear witness to a long-heralded tragedy.
NLVerzonnen oorden
Het aards paradijs, Luilekkerland, Utopia, Xanadu: sinds mensenheugenis verzinnen we plekken om onze diepste verlangens op te projecteren. De dichters Alara Adilow, Hannah van Binsbergen, Astrid Haerens en Arno Van Vlierberghe gidsen ons met nieuwe gedichten naar oorden die we verzonnen om onszelf te overstijgen.