Halldór Laxness
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A Beginner’s Guide To Laxness: One US-Based Writer’s Take
Want to deepen your relationship with Icelandic literature in English translation but don’t know where to start? We’ve asked US-based professor of literature, Jenna Grace Sciuto, what she’d suggest, starting with the classics of the one-and-only Nobel Laureate, Halldór Laxness. Spending her…
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Ian McEwan Wins Halldór Laxness International Literary Prize
Ian McEwan, an English author whose works have been celebrated the world over, is the first winner of the new Halldór Laxness International Literary Prize, a statement to the press from the prize organisers announces. The prize carries an award purse of…
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This Day In Icelandic History: Halldór Laxness’ The Atom Station Sells Out In One Day
Long before there was Björk, there was Iceland’s original pop star, Halldór Laxness. One of the most misunderstood Icelandic authors in the history of literature (e.g. Bjartur from Independent People is not the hero of the story), his work consistently plays with…
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Get Your Read On : The Perfect Landscape & The Atom Station
Christmas is coming, so here are two more English-translated Icelandic books that we’d recommend as a gift for the Icelandophile in your life. Ragna Sigurðardóttir – The Perfect Landscape A young art historian named Hanna returns to Iceland and takes up a…
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Sjón & Jón Kalman Among Likely Nobel Prize Winners
Tomorrow, the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in literature will be announced and according to bookies our very own Sjón and Jón Kalman Stefánsson are among the favourites, reports RÚV. Swedish bookies have placed the two in the tenth and eleventh…
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Buy Shit: Independent People, YPSILON, Craft Beer & More
A puffin fridge magnet won’t get you drunk, or enlighten you to the Icelandic national character, will it? Independent People by Halldór Laxness If you want to know the nature of a man, pay attention to his words; if you want to…
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Heirs Of Laxness In Dispute With Tax Office
In a new interview in Fréttablaðið, Guðný Halldórsdóttir Laxness – daughter of Nobel Prize winning author and national treasure Halldór Laxness – says that Icelandic tax authorities have been making life difficult for her and her entire family. For the past four…
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Get Your Read On: Wayward Heroes & The Creator
If you want the joy of reading a piece of Icelandic literature without the hassle of learning Icelandic, then these two novels, now translated into English, are a great place to start. Halldór Laxness – Wayward Heroes When ‘Wayward Heroes’ (‘Gerpla’, in…
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Get Your Read On: Where To Start In The Icelandic Book Store
For the unacquainted, it can be hard to know where to start with Icelandic literature. Should you begin with a weighty medieval saga—and if so, which one? Should it be a Laxness tome? Maybe a slim volume of concise, lyrical fiction by…
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Do Not Praise That POS Bjartur: Independent People, Reviewed
Six decades ago this year, Halldór Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland.” Having just read ‘Independent People’—Laxness’ most celebrated work; largely the reason for the honour—it’s…
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The Tyranny Of Tiny: Size Matters, Iceland
Be warned, Iceland, your toes are about to get stepped on by a loud, pushy American. Any conversation about life and culture in Iceland exists against the backdrop of its size. By which I mean, it is impossible to move discussion forward…
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Northern Sights
I moved to Iceland to get away from my friends and family. I don’t hate them, but I was beginning to think they were stopping me from reaching my full potential. My friends were always showing up at my house and forcing…
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The Last Emperor Of Atlantis Was An Icelander
Karl Kerulf Einarsson, aka Dunganon, aka the Duke of St. Kilda, aka Emperor Cormorant XII of Atlantis, was both an artist and a poet, but his most remarkable creation was himself…or I should say his various selves. Born in 1897 near Seyðisfjörður…
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HALLDÓR LAXNESS AND THE CIA
In 1946 Halldor Laxness’ epic novel Independent People was published in America. The publication and the success of the novel in the United States caused Laxness and Iceland to become of interest to both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central…