The journey had taken on its own momentum, it had become an autonomous, independent entity, she was searching for love, and was still happily unaware that truth is the first casualty of peace. Alexander, the Russian captive who survived the sinking of prisoner ship the Rigel and found himself in Ingrid's arms, made an attempt to cross the mountains to Sweden.

Ingrid will follow in his footsteps, carrying her babe in arms, the child's dark eyes the only proof that she ever knew him. Along the way, Ingrid's will encounter collaborators, partisans, refugees, deserters, slaves and sinners, in a country that still bears the scars of defeat and occupation. And before her journey's end she will be forced to ask herself how well she knows the man she is risking everything to find.

Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw

'Taken together, Jacobsen has given us an epic of Norway's experience of the first half of the 20th century that is subtle and moving.' David Mills, Sunday Times

'Jacobsen can make almost anything catch the light . . .One of Norway's greatest writers on the working class.' Times Literary Supplement