Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2019, Qupperneq 42

42The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09— 2019
We Know What
You’ll Read This
Summer
A beginners guide to contemporary
Icelandic literature
Words: Valur Grettisson
Codex 1962 (2016)
Sjón (Translated by Victoria Cribb)
Even If you have never heard Sjón’s
name before, you have probably
heard his lyrics, such as those
featured in the songs “Isobel” and
“Virus” by Björk, as well as many
of her other songs. Sjón is also one
of Iceland’s most unique writers
and it’s safe to say that he is pav-
ing the road for Nordic magical
realism. His book CoDex 1962 is an
amazing trilogy of stories in one
book. The Guardian described it
as “a clay baby that becomes the
narrator of a chaotic extravaganza
in which Bosch meets Chagall,
with touches of Tarantino,” also
saying that Sjón has mastered
the earlier fabulists’ technique of
merging history with high-speed
comedy and surreal profundity.
If that isn’t enough for you, The
New York Times said in a headline
about the book: “An Epic From
Iceland, Complete With Unicorns,
Angels and a Stamp-Collecting
Werewolf.” We, his countrymen,
are still blushing from the praise.
Land of Love and Ruins
(2011)
Oddný Eir (Translated by Philip
Roughton)
This is perhaps the oddest book
in the bunch, but we have to in-
clude it, because it feels like the
key to the Icelandic soul is hidden
somewhere in its pages. The book
teeters between being a novel and a
non-fiction autobiography, telling
the story of the writer, her relation-
ships, her colourful private life,
and her endless search for inner
peace—and perhaps something
even bigger than that. It’s almost
hypnotic in its odd narrative, and
its wider connection with nature,
language and birdlife. This book is
not one for speed readers, although
it’s relatively short at only 233 pag-
es. Oddný Eir won the European
Union Prize for Literature for this
book in 2014. And deservedly so.

Heaven and Hell (2007)
Jón Kalmann Stefánsson
(Translated by Philip Roughton)
Jón Kalmann’s name has been ut-
tered more than once in the same
sentence as “Nobel Prize” and he
has probably won all other prizes
between heaven and hell. This nov-
el is the first in his trilogy about
life and death in the countryside,
and is filled with magical sen-
tences that are borderline poems
in themselves. He has a unique
talent for connecting the divine
with the ordinary, and filling the
heart of the reader of something
important. The Reykjavík Grape-
vine wrote about the book in 2010,
saying at the time, “‘Heaven And
Hell’ is a universal tale of man’s
fragility amidst the gargantuan
power of nature, about the endur-
ing strength of friendship and the
individual will to survive. This is a
moving, timeless, intense novel de-
serving of all the attention it gets.”
The Greenhouse (2007)
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (Translated by
Brian FitzGibbon)
Although Hotel Silence is Auður
Ava’s smash hit—it won the Nordic
Council Literature Prize—we’d be
remiss to not mention her brilliant
story about a young man that has
to deal with his own manhood—
and also flowers—in the novel
‘The Greenhouse.’ The book was
a surprise hit in France in 2010,
but never found its feet amongst
Icelanders, even though it won a
literature award from local news-
paper DV at the time. The core of
the story is about a young man that
moves abroad and leaves his new-
born baby, his disabled brother,
and his father, bringing with him
a cutting of a rose. It sounds simple
enough, but of course, it never is.
LoveStar (2002)
Andri Snær Magnason (Translated
by Victoria Cribb)
A rare Icelandic sci-fi novel, we
can say with confidence that this
book predicted the rise of social
media, and all of the hollow mar-
keting therein. The book is es-
sentially a beautiful love story of
people in a mad world ruled by a
crazy company called LoveStar that
shoot your remains to the space
and transform death to stars. This
book had an incredible impact on
me, and I am still amazed that
Hollywood has not taken notice
of it and its smart criticism that
really resonates with the mod-
ern social media environment
that rules our lives today. Trust
me, it’s a timeless masterpiece.
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