Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.11.2015, Side 2

2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • November 1 2015
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However, Icelandic booksellers
publish an annual catalogue each
year, featuring books coming
out for Christmas, and her
horror novel had already been
announced, so Yrsa’s publisher
insisted that they go to press. The
cover of the Icelandic release
featured the haunting face of
a child and it soon became
apparent that people were scared
by both the cover and the story.
Some people were so frightened
by the cover that they wouldn’t
leave it out in plain view, a
few timid souls even resorting
to putting it in their freezers
in between reading. “You can
write something and not know
if it’s scary or not,” Yrsa said.
This story, which takes place
in an abandoned town in the
Westfjords, will soon be the
subject of a feature film.
Yrsa’s newest book, The
Undesired, is also a stand-alone
novel. She was motivated to
write this novel in response to
the investigation of Icelandic
children’s homes in the 1960s
and 70s, which revealed the
horrific circumstances faced by
many of the children in these
homes. Some of the children
appear to have found themselves
there simply because their
parents were poor and Yrsa sees
some parallels between them and
Canada’s residential schools.
One especially troubling statistic
is that the life expectancy of
Icelanders’ who grew up in such
children’s homes may be more
than 20 years lower than those
who grew up with their families.
The Undesired tells the story of a
“weekend dad” who finds himself
investigating one of these homes
for the government, only to find
himself asking questions about
the supposed accident that had
claimed the life of his ex-wife.
Juggling work and writing
Following her presentation,
audience members had many
questions for this civil engineer
with a vivid imagination, who
writes bone-chilling novels in the
comfort of her suburban home
in Seltjarnarnes, although she’s
not without North American
connections – she lived in
Houston for five years when she
was younger and her daughter
was born in Montreal while she
was living there.
Asked about her crime-writ-
ing style, Yrsa said that she seeks
to evoke a sense of horror in her
readers rather than go into too
much detail. “I never put women
in basements and torture them.
The more awful stuff is left to the
reader. I don’t spell it out.” (So
if anyone finds her novels “too
graphic,” it probably says more
about the reader than the author.)
Asked how she manages
to juggle her career as an civil
engineer with the demands of
writing, Yrsa replied, “because
my day job as an engineer is so
different than writing, it’s like
coming home and knitting.” In
fact, she revealed, “that's what
I’d really like to do, but I’m
terrible at knitting.” So instead,
she knits with words; yet just
like knitting with wool, she said
her writing is driven by an urge
to create something. Speculating
that she works about 80 percent
of the time, although she says her
employers think it may be more
like 50 or 60 percent, she devotes
much of her remaining time to
reading and writing. “I don’t
watch much TV and that frees up
an incredible amount of time.”
Asked why she shifted from
writing children’s books to
crime fiction, Yrsa said, “I liked
writing them” (i.e., books for
children), but they were limiting
because, “you have to be careful
what you say. You don’t want to
hurt their innocence.” She added
that her children’s books were
humorous in nature and “it’s
hard to be funny” all of the time.
By contrast, “there are a million
ways to be horrible.”
One audience member
asked about what language
Yrsa writes in and whether or
not she’s directly involved in
the translation process. Yrsa
responded by saying that she
writes in Icelandic and, while she
would like to write in English, she
feels as though she doesn’t have
a strong enough command of the
language for writing. (This was
surprising to those in attendance,
who found her English flawless.)
It’s also the case that Icelandic
sentences are shorter and involve
less punctuation than English,
so there are differences of
form as well as vocabulary and
idiom. One of the advantages of
English, she averred, is that, “you
have much more powerful curse
words than we do.” Yrsa was
involved in the translation of her
first book into English, but, since
then, she has left the translation
to the experts. Her books come
out in England before they come
out in North America and there
are some differences between
the two English versions –
American publishers buy the
British versions and then try to
Americanize them.
Looking ahead
Yrsa confessed that, “one
day, I might write science
fiction. As a child, I wanted to
be an astronomer,” but too many
people confused this aspiration
with astrology. For now, she’s
working on a new series. Indeed,
she completed the draft for the
first novel of the series at noon
on the day she left Iceland for
her current book tour. Her new
series is about a woman, Freyja,
who is the head of a children’s
home where those who have
been victims of crimes are dealt
with in a safe, child-friendly
environment, and a policeman
who works with her. Inspired by
a real-life case in the 70s, where
children were being abused by
their father while their politically
powerful grandfather interfered
with the police investigation,
she found herself wanting the
grandfather removed from his
grave in the cemetery. Realizing
this would be impossible in real
life, she did it to a character in the
book. Anger can be creative and
redemptive.
So behave yourself around
Yrsa, or you might find your
grave being moved in some
future novel. Or worse.
Dr. Torfi H. Tulinius, Professor of Medieval Icelandic Studies at the University of Iceland, will deliver the annual Richard and
Margaret Beck Lectures on Icelandic Literature at
the University of Victoria from November 1 to 3,
2015. A scholar in the fields of Medieval Icelandic
literature, Medieval history, narrative theory, and
psychoanalysis, his most recent publication is The
Enigma of Egill: The Saga, the Viking Poet, and
Snorri Sturluson (2014).
Tulinius will offer three lectures over the
course of the series:
“The Detective Novel in Icelandic: From
Jóhann M. Bjarnason to Arnaldur Indriðason”
on Sunday, November 1, 2:00-4:00 p.m. in the
Clearihue Building, Room A203;
“Introduction to the Old Norse World Through
the Saga of the Viking Poet Egill” on Monday,
November 2, 3:00-5:00 p.m. in the Cornett
Building, Room A125; and,
“Medieval Romances in Iceland: Old Norse
Translations from Old French” on Tuesday,
November 3, 4:30 p.m. in the Engineering Comp
Science Building, Room 124.
The Beck lecture series at the University of
Victoria focuses on various aspects of Icelandic
literature and culture. Richard and Margaret Beck
made provision in their wills for a special fund
to be established at the University of Victoria
to sustain these lectures. The first Richard and
Margaret Beck Lecture on Icelandic Literature
took place on February 14, 1988. Since then, the
University of Victoria has hosted over 80 lectures
on a wide range of topics.
Tulinius to deliver 2015 Beck Lectures
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Left: Yrsa enjoying chatting with her fans. Centre: Yrsa’s books
disappearing at Tergesen’s. Above: Yrsa with Tim Samson
Yrsa ... from page 1
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF ICELAND
PHOTO: CINDY JONASSON PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF ICELAND