Literature and Fiction · Paperback

The Victors

Norwegian title: Seierherrene

Roy Jacobsen

The Victors from 1991 is a grand epic about the rise of the Norwegian social democracy. The novel is divided into two parts. The first takes place at the northwestern coast of Norway, and is a depiction of the hard lives of the poor farmers who were also fishermen in the first half of the 20th Century. The milieu is much the same as in The Unseen, Jacobsen's bestselling novel from 2013. The second part is about the same family, having moved to Oslo. Now we find ourselves in the 60´s, and the narrative has changed to a first person perspective. Some of the characters and the milieu here are recognizable from Jacobsen's novel from 2009, Wonder Child.

The Victors marked Roy Jacobsen's great break-through in Norway. It earned him the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize, and a nomination to the Nordic Council's Literature Prize.

´A story have not been told better on this side of Hamsun.´VG´This is one of the strongest depictions of poverty and the culture of the impoverished in the Nordic countries that I have read. Roy Jacobsen builds the story with overview and great sense for details. He also has a visible unschooled engagement for class differences that I have not seen the likes of since Martin Andersen Nexø.´ DAGENS NYHETER, Sweden