From the author of The Ice Palace

Sixteen-year old Sissel and her young brother Olaf have been left minding their parents’ farm for the night. When a strange family descends on them, lost, in a broken-down car, the children have to cope alone. By the end of this spring night there will have been a birth and a death in the house, and adolescence will have vanished forever.

‘Tarjei Vesaas could write books which breathed the almost mystical union between man and countryside.’ — Daily Telegraph

‘The greatest Norwegian writer of his time.’ — Scotsman

‘Vesaas achieves his effects with a powerful economy of words and his style is graphic and highly evocative.’ — Guardian

‘Vesaas conjures brilliantly from the sombre north.’ — Times Literary Supplement

Translated from the Norwegian by Elizabeth Rokkan

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TARJEI VESAAS was born in 1897 in the remote rural Telemark district of Norway, where he grew up and spent most of his life. His first book appeared in 1923, and he subsequently published several novels, volumes of poetry and short stories. His novel The Ice Palace was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize, the most important Scandinavian literary award. He was three times a Nobel Prize candidate. His work has been published in many countries. He died in 1970.