Sources on Iceland 2: Fiction (non-crime) and poetry.

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Last week I wrote about some of the non-fiction books I have read over the years to understand Iceland better. This week I’m looking at fiction and poetry. I’m excluding crime novels from this list since I discussed those earlier. Also, I include a book ‘From the Reading Pile’, which I haven’t got to yet but which seem worth a look.

Let me know in the comments section what other books should be added to the reading pile.

I have been posting at the rate of one blog post every four weeks, but I think these Sources on Iceland posts should come out closer to each other than that, so I have published this second one only one week after the first.

Fiction (Non-Crime) in Icelandic

Independent People by Halldór Laxness (tr. J. A. Thompson).  The great Icelandic novel. Bjartur is a tough, independent, stubborn-as-hell farmer in Iceland at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Under the Glacier by Halldór Laxness (tr. Magnus Magnusson).  An emissary from the Bishop of Iceland arrives in an eccentric community under the Snaefells glacier.

101 Reykjavík by Hallgrímur Helgason (tr. Brian Fitzgibbon).  A sardonic look at the life of a thirty-year-old slacker in Reykjavík who still lives with his mum. Great depiction of Reykjavík at night; I have yet to meet a slacker there, though.

The Thief of Time by Steinunn Sigurdardóttir (tr. Rory McTurk).  The story of a love affair, which touches intriguingly on class, a phenomenon that lurks only half visible in Icelandic society. One of three Sigurdardóttirs whose books I have read: they are not sisters.

The Blue Fox by Sjón (tr. Victoria Cribb).  A charming story by Iceland’s leading contemporary literary author and poet about the hunt for an elusive blue fox. Applies magical realism successfully to the Icelandic landscape.


Fiction (Non-Crime) in English

The Killer’s Guide to Iceland by Zane Radcliffe.  An underrated novel about an Englishman’s visit to his girlfriend in Iceland, which goes badly wrong. Imaginative descriptions of the country and its people and a good story. Should be in the crime section, really.

The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone.  A retelling of the life of Gudrid the Wanderer, with the gaps left by the sagas filled in.

The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson.  The story of an Icelandic woman kidnapped by Barbary pirates in the seventeenth century and taken to North Africa. Bewitching.

Running Blind by Desmond Bagley.  Classic 1960s spy caper involving a British agent with a mysterious package being chased all the way around Iceland, literally circumnavigating the island. Much loved by many.

From the Reading Pile:
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.  An acclaimed novel about an Icelandic woman sentenced to death in 1829.

Poetry

Letters from Iceland by W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice.  School reports in poetry and prose from two poets sent on a boondoggle to Iceland in the 1930s by their publisher, Faber.

Moon Country by Simon Armitage and Glyn Maxwell.  A follow-up pilgrimage to Iceland made by two leading British poets, once again paid for by Faber.

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