Like most teenagers, Emilie is concerned about her appearance. Clothes, body and calories. But Emilie takes it even further. She works out every day and eats as little as possible. Every meal is a fight. Now Emilie and her family are going to spend the holidays on the Grand Canary. After lunch she sets out for a jog, while only a few kilometers away a boatful of African refugees washes ashore. Soon their paths will cross. For Emilie, the encounter with the refugees – their hunger and impoverishment – is a wakeup call and a turning point in her own life.‘This novel reaches beyond the sometimes artificial genre which is the young adults novel. The book both can and should be read by everyone.’Dagbladet‘Rarely have we read a novel more engaging than Barsakh, in which the story is set on the Canary Islands, and where the author describes in a masterly way the encounter between the 15-year-old Norwegian girl Emilie and the 18-year-old illegal African immigrant Samuel from Ghana.’Canariposten