Reykjavík Grapevine - jan. 2019, Blaðsíða 42

Books 42The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 01— 2019
Best In Trans-
lation 2018
Read Icelandic – now in English!
Words: Björn Halldórsson
2018 was a year of travel for Ice-
landic fiction, with the number
of titles published in translation
tripling from a mere decade ago.
Here are some favour ites that
we have been passing around
the Grapevine offices this year.
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir –
Hotel Silence
Winner of the 2018 Nordic Council
Literature Prize, ‘Hotel Silence’ is
characterised by the bleak humour
it applies to the tragedy of human
existence. In the novel, Auður Ava
interrogates the more benevolent
aspects of traditional masculine
values through her protagonist:
a solemn middle-aged handyman
whose only means of communicat-
ing love is by installing kitchens,
tiling bathrooms and being useful
to his relations and compatriots.
When those meagre tools prove
insufficient after an emotional
blow, he sets off on a journey to an
unspecified location with the aim
of committing suicide in as quiet
and polite a manner as possible.
Hallgrímur Helgason –
Woman at 1000 Degrees
Hallgrímur Helgason’s subject
matters are so varied that if it
wasn’t for his florid and exuber-
ant prose style it might be diffi-
cult to see his books as belonging
within the same oeuvre. In this
biographical work of fiction, a vi-
vacious and foul-mouthed octoge-
narian narrates her life from the
islands of Breiðafjörður, through
Nazi-era Germany and all the way
to her current situation as a bed-
ridden invalid living in a garage
in the Icelandic suburbs. As she
spends her time catfishing gull-
ible men in distant lands with pic-
tures of Icelandic beauty queens,
her only companion is a live hand
grenade; her final measure of
maintaining control over her fate.
Kristín Ómarsdóttir –
Waitress in Fall
Although Kristín Ómarsdóttir is
still actively publishing new work,
this collection, gleaned from her
seven books of poetry published
between 1987 and 2017, feels timely.
It reveals the sleeping giant of Ice-
landic literature; a poetess with a
voice that has remained consistent
and relevant throughout her ca-
reer. The collection is selected and
translated by Vala Thorodds and
is the first appearance of Kristín’s
poetry in English. Gathered to-
gether, the work herein presents
overarching themes of grotesque
femininity, surreal domesticity
and voices driven to repetition;
forced to be loud to be heard.
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Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir
– Stormwarning
This collection of poetry offers
a very different view of the Ice-
landic winter than that of the
magical north—a feeling of be-
ing confined to your home and
forced to keep your own compa-
ny while waiting out the storm.
The speakers of the poems revel
in their melancholy and loneli-
ness with acute self-awareness,
addressing the humdrum of the
everyday and the pettiness of
lives lead online. Yet, the tone is
light, ironic and funny, as if the
speakers can’t keep from smirk-
ing at their own theatrical miser-
ies. The translation was recently
nominated for the PEN America
Translation Prize and is present-
ed in a dual language format.
Bragi Ólafsson – Narrator
Readers of Bragi’s previous two
novels in English will already be
familiar with some of the misfits
that swagger in and out of his nov-
els, as the interconnectivity of all
his literary works is one of the joys
of reading his prose. Conceited,
blissfully oblivious and yet con-
sumed with petty jealousies, his
protagonists provide an outlet
for all those traits that we loath
in others and fear in ourselves.
Here, everyday life takes a surreal
turn when an embittered writer
decides on a whim to stalk a for-
mer rival-in-love. The chase offers
him the chance to air his numer-
ous grievances but in observing
this near-stranger going about
his day he is soon forced to take
stock of the paucity of his own life.
Sjón – CoDex 1962
Each instalment of this magnum-
opus-trilogy was written near a
decade apart, in between the vast
output of poetry and novels that
have made Sjón one of the most
widely recognised contempo-
rary Icelandic authors. Leading
back to his early inspirations in
the postmodern complexities of
Burroughs and Bulgakov, this is
the book where Sjón pulls out all
the stops and shows the reader
no mercy, producing a work that
is as challenging as it is reward-
ing. Gathered into one volume,
these three books present a dis-
orienting cocktail that is equal
amounts the wildness and exu-
berance of a young writer mak-
ing his name with a clang, mixed
in with the quiet authority and
confidence of an award winning
author with nothing to prove.
Ófeigur Sigurðsson –
Öræfi: The Wasteland
Öræfi’s success is carried on the
backs of the complexity and layer-
ing of its prose as well as its deli-
ciously selfish narrative structure.
In between delighting its readers
with humour and absurdity, the
writing does its utmost to buck and
kick and throw them off track. In
fact, letting go of expectations and
giving in to the dizzying rhythm of
the prose is a key factor for enjoy-
ing the book. To avoid frustration
and disappointment, readers must
allow their concentration to drift
along with the prose as it pulls in
subtexts from far and wide and
forges connections in the manner
of the subconscious.
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