Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw

The Barrøy Chronicles was initially a trilogy, but luckily we got a fourth book, and maybe even we will get a fifth.

This isn’t the best of the Chronicles, an accolade I would bestow on The Unseen, but readers are so invested in the life of Ingrid and island life, that it is unmissable, and still hugely enjoyable.

I have saved this, as I am currently travelling around the islands close to Lofoten, and spent a few days on the island of Træna where the islanders gom on holiday to.
The story spans the 1950s, during which the tough self-sufficient lifestyle of the Barrøy familygoes through change brought about by the effect of the wartime German occupation and the first slow steps towards transformation.

Ingrid’s life changes further.. after his wife disappears, the skipper of the boat that does milk collections and deliveries, Johannes Hartvigsen, takes his 5 year old son Mattis with him on his rounds, though he gets badly seasick. One stormy day he leaves him on Barrøy while he works, sails off into the distance, never to return. Unwittingly, Ingrid has become mother to another child in addition to Kaja, a young girl who is an orphan from the war.

Life is somewhat less harsh than before the war, little luxuries, such as a holiday make life more bearable, the island dialect has got closer to Norwegian, and young residents are able to leave for futures elswhere.

It is another wonderful story of a woman, and her family, continuing to lead an unorthodox life as the rest of the world seems to be leaving them behind.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5