The departure

Novel from Norwegian
By Ingeborg Arvola
Translated from Norwegian by Katharina Martl

416 pages. Hardcover with ribbon bookmark. 15 x 22 cm.

Northern Finland, 1859: After a romantic affair with a married man, Brita Caisa is expelled from the church and forced to leave her hometown. She puts her two sons on a reindeer sleigh, grabs her skis, and sets off with a group of people toward the Norwegian Arctic Ocean.
There, it is said, the sea is teeming with fish and there is plenty of work and food. When she meets the farm owner Mikko along the way and finds temporary employment, she senses she could imagine a future with him. But their mutual affection is put to a severe test.

Poetic and intense, Ingeborg Arvola portrays a young woman who struggles with society's norms and courageously follows her own path. In a world characterized by the barren Nordic landscape, the importance of fishing, faith in God, and a deep, mystic connection to nature.

Ingeborg Arvola , born in 1974 in Honningsvåg, Norway, grew up in the far north, in Pasvikdalen and Tromsø. She now lives in Oslo. Since her literary debut in 1999 with the novel "Korallhuset," she has published numerous books for children and adults.
She celebrated her international breakthrough in 2022 with the award-winning novel "The Departure," the first of her historical Arctic Sea trilogy, for which she received the prestigious Brage Prize. Arvola comes from the Kven minority and often incorporates the history and culture of northern Norway into her works.

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