It would be very strange were this book not to assure Cora Sandel’s reputation outside Norway. For she is one of the genuine few’, said a Norwegian newspaper on the release of Alberta and Jacob in 1926.

Hailed as a masterpiece on its British publication in 1962, this Modern Classic reissue should bring this magnificent novel to a new generation.

Imaginative and intelligent, Alberta is a misfit trapped in a stiflingly provincial town in the far north of Norway whose only affinity is for her extrovert brother Jacob.

Combining mastery of style and characterization with brilliant descriptive writing, this powerful story of a young woman’s rebellion is universally regarded as one of the greatest novels to come from Scandinavia.

‘She has a place to herself among the finest contemporary writing.’ –Guardian

‘A masterpiece . . . it reads magnificently well . . . Above all, the whole book has an old-fashioned solidity, a quality of standing up and ringing true which sorts out good novels from bad quicker than anything else.’ – Observer


CORA SANDEL was born Sara Fabricius in Oslo in 1880. After a difficult childhood in the northern Norwegian town of Tromsø, she wrote the semi-autobiographical Alberta trilogy (of which Alberta and Jacob is the first part). These novels earned her an immediate place in the Scandinavian canon, but it was not until the 1960s that Sandel, now living as a recluse in Sweden, was discovered by the English-speaking world. Her books were acclaimed in the mainstream press, and feminist critics reinvented her as a champion of women’s emancipation. She wrote many other novels and short stories and was awarded a State Pension for artists by Norway. She died in 1974.