From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner: At the close of the 17th century, Iceland is an oppressed Danish colony, suffering under extreme poverty, famine, and plague. A farmer and accused cord-thief named Jon Hreggvidsson makes a bawdy joke about the Danish king and soon after finds himself a fugitive charged with the murder of the king’s hangman.In the years that follow, the hapless but resilient rogue Hreggvidsson becomes a pawn entangled in political and personal ...

“Oddný Eir is an authentic author, philosopher and mystic. She weaves together diaries and fiction. She is the writer I feel can best express the female psyche of now and has bridged the gap between rural Iceland and Western philosophy. A true pioneer!!!!!!!!” —BjörkThe winner of the EU Prize for Literature, Land of Love and Ruins introduces a daring new voice in international fiction: Oddný Eir. In the wake of Iceland’s financial crisis, a young author, r...

Winner of the EU Prize for Literature“Oddný Eir is an authentic author, philosopher, and mystic. She weaves together diaries and fiction. She is the writer I feel can best express the female psyche of now.… A true pioneer!!!!!!!!” —Björk“Part diary, part philosophy (think Pascal and Montaigne), always keen and true and delightfully smart, this is a book that I related to deeply and loved consuming in small bites. Fans of Nell Zink's The...

Detective H. Grímsson is intelligent, hard as nails, and very resourceful. But he is also his own worst enemy. After an unfortunate shooting incident in Iceland's largest shopping mall on Christmas Eve, he is demoted to a police deputy in a small rural village in eastern Iceland. Grímsson's plan is to kick back, drink some beer, and enjoy this time away from home.When two young female hitchhikers disappear, Grímsson fears that the girls are lost in the highlands or have drowned in ...

Detective H. Grímsson is a city detective, and a damn good one at that, owing much to what he calls his uncanny intuition. However, that's only half the truth of it—detective Grímsson is clairvoyant and frequently sees the grim shadow of death before it approaches.A young college student is found dead in his BMW on a gravel road not far from the city. He was shot at close range. Grímsson suspects that this has something to do with the nudes that the deceased had in...

A must-listen for fans of police procedurals and international crime from Stefán Máni's Grimsson series.Contains mature themes.

“There are novels that make something inside you come awake, and make you want to keep it awake. Maybe that’s what a classic is: not only a work that endures but one that makes something endure in you—something that lasts even after you may have forgotten the whole story and the characters’ names. Such is the case with the Icelandic novelist Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s ‘Trilogy About the Boy’.”—Salvatore Scibona, New YorkerIn a remote fishing village, a boy an...

Longlisted for the 2024 Republic of Consciousness US and Canada Prize • A World Literature Today Notable Translation of 2024 • A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2024A spellbinding saga about the inhabitants and inheritors of one rural community, by one of Iceland's most beloved novelists.A man comes to awareness in a cold church in the Icelandic countryside, not knowing who he is, why he’s th...

A spellbinding saga about the inhabitants and inheritors of one rural community, by one of Iceland's most beloved novelists.A man comes to awareness in a cold church in the Icelandic countryside, not knowing who he is, why he's there, or how he arrived, with a stranger staring mockingly from a few pews back. Startled by the man's cryptic questions, he leaves—and plunges into a history spanning centuries, a past pressed into his genes that sinks him closer to some k...

Keflavik: a town that has been called the darkest place in Iceland, surrounded by black lava fields, hemmed in by a sea that may not be fished. Its livelihood depends entirely on a U.S. military base, a conduit for American influences that shaped Icelandic culture and ethics from the 1950s to the dawning of the new millennium.It is to Keflavik that Ari - a writer and publisher - returns from Copenhagen at the behest of his dying father, two years after walking out on his wife and c...

'As we come nearer to Christmas this wondrous book becomes ever more poignant and magical. Once read never forgotten' Michael MorpurgoEvery winter, in the days leading up to Christmas, Benedikt walks into the snowy mountains of Iceland to rescue sheep lost in the blizzards.With his dog and his ram by his side, traversing wild snowstorms and crystalline nights, fuelled by endless cups of hot coffee, Benedikt dedicates himself to helping othe...

Evil is at large . . .A member of the parliament is stabbed to death in Reykjavik, the small and usually peaceful capital of Iceland. Police officer Grímsson thinks he saw the perpetrator earlier that night, in a pub in the city's east end. The young man turns himself in. He has no previous record and does not remember anything about the night of the murder, but his fingerprints are on the murder weapon. Grímsson feels that the young man is somehow innocent, a vict...