White man

Sara Johnsen debuted as an author just before her debut as a film director. White Man is her second book, about a white Norwegian couple who travel to an exotic tropical island that has just won its independence. The idyll seems complete, but gradually Thomas and Cathrine realize something new about themselves: they, too, have a skin colour.

Then something happens that causes them to divide their life, ever after, into the periods before and after. But they do it in different ways. Thomas looks for a meaning, an explanation; Cathrine views it as a random tragedy.

Young Joseph has never been anywhere other than on this island. He’s in love with Susan, a woman from the former colonial power, Britain. And the lives of Thomas and Cathrine, Susan and Joseph, weave into one another, into three different stories of love, power, and powerlessness.

“Johnsen shows that it is possible to create engrossing literature that deals both with the closest intimacies and the really big issues of the world in which we live […] a taut, shuddering thriller, which time and again surprises the reader.”
Dagsavisen, Oslo

“A thriller, albeit in a far from traditional fashion, White Man is also a novel about politics and power, love and the lack thereof between man and woman and, equally, between parents and children. White Man is a challenging text which more than outlasts the final page.”
Dagbladet, Oslo

“With considerable elegance, Johnsen manages to weave together the tensions of intimate relationships, colonial history and old antipathies between ethnic groups.”
DN, Oslo

White Man has been sold to Klim, Denmark and is part of the Main Selection in Norway’s major book club.

Gyldendal 2008