Just A Mother
Author: Roy Jacobsen, Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw
Publisher: Biblioasis, paperback, 318 pages, including Glossary
Reviewed by Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
The Author
Roy Jacobsen was born in Oslo, his family was from northern Norway. He has written over 15 novels, and is a Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature member. In addition to this novel, Jacobsen has written 3 other Ingrid Barrøy Novels. The Unseen, the first one about Ingrid and her family, was a phenomenal bestseller in Norway and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award, selected as an Indie Next pick in North America, and named a New York Times New and Noteworthy book. The Kirkus-starred and critically acclaimed White Shadow, the second Barrøy novel, was published in North America by Biblioasis in 2021 and followed by Eyes of the Rigel in 2022.
Brief Observations
It is sometime after World War II. Ingrid, the protagonist, who is referred to as “just a mother,” (p. 310), the novel’s title, is a member of the Barrøy family, and as a young woman she inherited from her parents, Hans and Maria, Barrøy Island in northern Norway. Ingrid had given birth to her daughter Kaja. The father of Kaja, Alexander, a Russian P.O.W. had been rescued from the wreck of the Rigel. Ingrid also raised Felix and Suzanne after the death of their parents, Zezenia and Oskar Tommesen. In addition to these children, Ingrid also took in a girl named Nelvy who died young, and Mathias—also referred to as Mattis—son of Olavia Storm and a German officer, Ottmar Ehrlich. After the disappearance/abandonment of Olavia, and the death at sea of her husband, Johannes Hartvigsen, who was twice her age, Ingrid, with the assistance of Pastor Samuel Malmberget, eventually adopted Mathias.
Pastor Samuel studied in Germany, expounds on Luther’s Bible, and likes to show up for surprise visits of his parishioners. Regarding himself as shy, he and Anna Karina Storm marry.
Barbro is Ingrid’s aunt, sister to her father Hans. She is the mother of an adult son, Lars, named after a Swedish worker on the island who may be his father. Barbro lives with Ingrid, offers hospitality to visitors, helps out with chores, and sings in the church choir.
The novel goes on at length to describe the isolated way of life on Barrøy Island, relying on boats to bring in supplies, mail, etc., no electricity, struggling to eke out a living with gardens, fishing, animals, and collecting eider down.
Mariann Vollheim was another lover of Alexander, after Ingrid. She is married to Olav, and lives in Trondheim with her daughter called Little Ingrid. Ingrid Barrøy and Mariann communicate with each other via letters, and have somewhat of a complex and conflicted relationship. However Mariann arranges for Kaja and Mathias to attend school in Trondheim. Mariann inherited an estate, and was a teacher at the Trondheim Cathedral School.
There is a lengthy process of selling local properties in order to build a new school. Ingrid employs stalling tactics to try and get as much money as possible for the Johannes Hartvigsen property, the proceeds of which would be given to Mathias.
The men of the community travel to Lofoten to fish during the winter months. However one year that changes, and Barrøy is never the same again.
The novel highlights, among other things: the importance of and tension within community relationships, childhood curiosity, traditional rural island and modern urban life, individual and collective identity in relation to the environment, psychological and theological issues such as guilt, shame, grief, anger, doubt, faith, sin, and the absence or presence of God in the lives and deaths of humans.
I’m not certain if the author or publisher chose the title for this novel. However, given the complexity of human beings, Ingrid is certainly more than “just a mother.” She is a niece, a mentor and community leader, a gardener, a farmer, a neighbour and friend, from a faith perspective a child of God, and so on.
The novel leaves this reviewer wondering if Roy Jacobsen will publish a fifth Ingrid Barrøy Novel, since the ending leaves readers curious about the future of a number of characters, including Ingrid.
