The Woman from Svalbard

Descrizione

The novel is based in Longyearbyen, a little town, the main one of the Svalbard Islands, the most northern inhabited center in the world, less than 1000 km from the North Pole. The leading role is held by a 65 year old lady, one of the very few people born and raised in the town. The Norwegian government, to which the islands belong, enforces all elderly people who have reached this age to spend the polar night (the period of total darkness which lasts about three months at those latitudes) on the mainland.

The lady is therefore forced to move to Tromsø where she is looked at with distrust by her neighbours and with curiosity by a little girl with whom she builds a close friendship.

Far from her home and city, from her habitual intimate contact with nature, the lady feels uneasy and anxiously awaits for the three months to pass in order to return to Longyearbyen and resume her life. Her life is strongly interwoven with her daughter Anastasya’s, to whom she is linked, since her birth, by a deep empathic relationship.

In the background, the sensitive imprint of a good father, who goes away taking their son with him, along with a big secret.