White Shadow
Farmer and fisherwoman Ingrid’s life is hard, sometimes harsh, but she has freedom and independence on Barroy, a small island close to the mainland of Norway. The Second World War still rages in Northern Europe, and for Ingrid she thinks it is essential that she maintains an impeccable neutrality. Any infringement on her part would bring down one of the Great Powers, devastating her island home. When a troop ship is destroyed, she must prevent an outbreak of disease by undertaking the ghastly task of straightway burying the drowned bodies brought to her by the sea. Then she is presented with a body, grievously injured but living. Knowing she is endangering her precious neutrality, firstly in common humanity, then in compassion and lastly in a reckless love, she conceals him. No one must know. She must keep her normal, always demanding routine. The burials, the need for scrupulous hygiene and now this deadly secret bring about her sudden physical and mental collapse and brutal interrogation. She faces the worst, survives and fights back.
This story, so cruel and so bleak, is told in the most wonderful language: precise and detailed yet poetic, and the whole manuscript entices readers into relishing the delightful local dialect.
