Books by Roy Jacobsen

Roy Jacobsen (b. 1954) is one of the most celebrated and influential contemporary writers in Norway, with his ten novels, four collections of short stories, a biography and a children's book. Among other awards, Roy Jacobsen has won the Bookseller's Prize, the Critic's Prize and in 2006, the Gyldendal Prize for The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles. From the author: I have worked as a logger for many years. And all my adult life I have been interested in the history of wars. I know Finnish Karelia quite well. When I was in hospital in 2004 the idea about Timmo came to me as though heaven-sent. I got out of hospital, sat down at my desk and didn't get to my feet again until the novel was finished. I have always had a soft spot for outsiders, not only because naturally enough I sympathise with them, or identify with them, but also because exceptions dont only say something about exceptions, they also say something about the rule - polite common people, those who obey orders, everything that the exception the outsider stands out against. So with the outsider you have two stories: the outsiders and the insiders. In many ways this novel is a fable, a realistic fable, about something which I believe is genuinely human, a fable about the goodness in man.