White Shadow

Ingrid lives alone on Barrøy, the remote Norwegian island that carries her name. The war of her childhood has given way to a worse one, and Norway is under German occupation.

When the bodies from a bombed troopship wash up on the shore, one of the men is alive. His warmth ends a loneliness that has lasted most of her life.

Hiding him brings danger. Ingrid has to protect her lover from the German forces and from Norwegians who collaborate with them, and the cost to her is heavy. The island, which has been her whole world, is taken from her once more.

She then makes a long way home through a country of refugees fleeing famine and of scorched-earth retreats. Among the suffering she is given something of immense value.

This is the sequel to The Unseen, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and it is set during the Second World War. The book was translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw. Its setting is spare and weather-beaten, and its people say little.