Shortlisted for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2009.

'A strange, impressively understated novel ... a daunting, traditional narrative which asserts itself from page one and, like the winter cold, refuses to relax its hold.' -- Irish Times 'Jacobsen is a gifted writer, stylish, laconic and imaginative, and he is well served by his translators, Don Bartlett and Don Shaw ... a powerful and well-written account of an unfamilliar episode in the Second World War.' -- TLS 'An inventive wordsmith and a great storyteller, [Jacobsen] never sacrifices substance for style. His research is meticulous; he knows when to hold back and let the unspoken speak for itself, the hallmark of an author so familiar with his subject that he knows precisely where to let the reader fill in the gaps. As he often places his characters in the midst of historical events and social change, the reader feels more emotionally involved than a mere observer would: The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles is a gem of a novel. -- Independent

Roy Jacobsen (b. 1954) is one of the most celebrated and influential contemporary writers in Norway, with his ten novels, four collections of short stories, a biography and a children's book. Among other awards, Roy Jacobsen has won the Bookseller's Prize, the Critic's Prize and in 2006, the Gyldendal Prize for The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles. From the author: I have worked as a logger for many years. And all my adult life I have been interested in the history of wars. I know Finnish Karelia quite well. When I was in hospital in 2004 the idea about Timmo came to me as though heaven-sent. I got out of hospital, sat down at my desk and didn't get to my feet again until the novel was finished. I have always had a soft spot for outsiders, not only because naturally enough I sympathise with them, or identify with them, but also because exceptions dont only say something about exceptions, they also say something about the rule - polite common people, those who obey orders, everything that the exception the outsider stands out against. So with the outsider you have two stories: the outsiders and the insiders. In many ways this novel is a fable, a realistic fable, about something which I believe is genuinely human, a fable about the goodness in man.