＊有英语大纲，以及作者的一封信，解释他为什么写出这本书
 
1990年代末，在挪威的一个小岛上。Andreas在整理他已故继父Johannes的遗物。他的继父曾经是一位水手，也严重酗酒。Andreas的姐姐Minna已经去世多年，所以只剩下Andreas一个人。在继父的遗物中Andreas发现了一些关于这个小岛的历史的文件：这座岛曾经属于一位非常有名的挪威籍纳粹，继父Johannes担任过这个人的司机。这个职位在表面上看起来很无辜，但是其实并不如此。当时的国务委员答应让这座岛当做贫穷孩子的殖民地，这些孩子的父母亲都是在非常神秘的状况下消失无踪影。Andreas同时也发现当初Minna也是把他留在这个岛上，自己背着巨大的罪恶感。Andreas在继父的房子待得越久，就发现越多秘密，而他也同时在面临岛上的人天天往房子丢石头想赶他走。
 
慢慢的，Andreas开始了解这座岛在当初战争时期的时候到底发生了什么事。他是在60以及70年代的时候在这座岛上长大的，很多事情他当时根本不了解。他也终于发现他的亲生父母当初到底为什么抛弃他。
 
书中这座岛同样是一个重要角色——它有许多神话般的特点，有点莎士比亚的特色。其实作者本身就生长于一座类似的岛，就在奥斯陆外面，而他的祖父母的房子的对面就是前贸易部长的房子。小时候的他们总是被大人警告不许去打扰这个人。前贸易部长当初战争过后被抓去坐牢21年，被放出来后已经非常年老，身体非常病弱。全岛的人都很少看到这个人或者他的家人——他们总是关在房子里。如果有任何孩子接近这房子，一定会被管理员赶走。
 
这跟书是Steve Sem-Sandberg在数十年后希望回顾他童年的一本书。对读者来说，是一个能够进入一个充满秘密、神话以及谎言的神奇世界的机会。
 
关于作者：
Steve Sem-Sandberg出生于1958年。他获得过许多文学奖，包括：2009年的August Prize、Aftonbladet Literary Award以及De Nios Grand Award。他曾经入围过两次Nordic Council Literary Award。他写过的三部曲（Milena Jesenská, Ulrike Meinhof 以及 Lou Andreas Salomé）在北欧获得大大好评。他2014年的作品《被选择的孩子》简体中文版权由复旦大学出版社买下，繁体版权还在：http://www.peonyrights.com/fantishuji/lishixiaoshuo/2014/0603/652.html
 
好评：
To catch sight of oneself, learn about one’s own history, challenges the established picture, the Story – this is The Tempest. Steve Sem-Sandberg weaves together these fragments like one of the true greats. We see the historical events – here in Norway during the Second World War and its aftermath – but we also see the wounds and grief the Story has left the individual with./…/
Steve Sem-Sandberg has written a suggestive and layered novel, told through a crystal clear narrative that immediately wins over the reader. The story is detailed, we can feel and smell it, we are present, in the moment. It was a long time since I disappeared so unreservedly into a novel’s intensity./…/
When love and power wants to be utopian, it turns evil. An address to our time that should be taken most seriously
Stefan Eklund, Dagens Nyheter
 
It might be that “The Tempest” is read as a way station between the bigger books. A smaller tale in the great swell of history, doubly so. That would indeed just reassert how these types of novels, written in the periphery of a great authorship, can be the ones to shine brightest and most uniquely. ”The Tempest” is, in a way, just that book. A small masterpiece, that can be read as poetry.
Hanna Nordenhök, Expressen
 
Steve Sem-Sanberg moves closer to the present with his latest novel. But mankind’s darkness remains unchanged, and his portrayal of it is masterful./…/
After all, Sem-Sandberg’s design is undeniable, the way he describes a passing aircraft or, even better, a crisp rain or a translucent dawn. It is the poetical drama of theses phenomena that creates a lingering, saturated read, as it is when you read something really beautiful.
Elisabeth Hjorth, Sydsvenskan
 
Steve Sem-Sandberg is one of those authors you can count on, a stylist of rank, a kind of Prospero in his own right with mastery of intrigue, characters and plots twists. He writes with such natural feeling and authority that one doesn’t have to worry in the least, one can just lean back and ride along while the author carefully portions out his sad tale and describes bombs that move “down along the sky like cross stitches in a tapestry”. “The Tempest” is about things that are handed down from person to person through the generations, and his prose is adapted for just such a leisurely course of events. /…/ this is a competent and solid novel that is simultaneously beautiful and strangely relaxing. Shakespeare’s play echoes and vibrates through the pages without ever making too much of a fuss. The result is a tale that both shimmers and threatens. That’s what a Prospero writes.
Josefin Holmström, Svenska Dagbladet
 
The story of Andreas Lehman’s complex relationship with his sister, which is exposed in a feverish, fragmentary, backwards way in Sem-Sandberg’s prose, rightly described as hypnotic.
Björn Werner, Ystads Allehanda
 
“Steve Sem-Sandberg’s name is printed in gold on the cover of The Tempest. This is hardly a coincidence, he is a golden writer and his writing absolutely sparkles. […] I want to highlight Sem-Sandberg’s sharp eye for intricate psycology, his ability to depict the goodness metamorphosis to the subtle evil, the irresponsible egotism’s destructive force. And to turn all of this into mighty and moving storytelling.”
Tommy Sundin, Västerbottens Kuriren
“It says a lot about Steve Sem-Sandberg’s talent as both a thinker and an author that he, as he does here, can compress the components that carry so strong associations. He creates a story that tells far beyond what one actually reads, while he keeps it so composed. […] I am deeply impressed by this completed sensual austerity.”
Anneli Dufva, Sveriges Radio
 
“Sem-Sandberg portrays the complexity of memory processes: the difference between what we remember and believe we remember, the attempt to retroactively explain the images and scenes from the past, straying along the wrong track and on suddenly appeared trails. […]”The Tempest” consolidates Sem-Sandberg’s position as one of the most interesting contemporary Swedish writers.”
Marta Ronne, Upsala Nya Tidning