Published in 1986, ‘Justice Undone’ (Grámosinn glóir) is a novel by Icelandic author Thor Vilhjálmsson that won the 1988 ‘Nordic Council Literature Prize’. Vilhjálmsson was born in Edinburgh and studied literature in Reykjavik, Nottingham and Paris (Sorbonne). He did play a very active role in Icelandic cultural life and worked in theatre and at the National Library of Iceland, also holding a number of posts in Icelandic organisations for writers and artists. Long involved in the cultural magazine Birtingur, he has published novels, collections of short stories, translations and articles on culture. ‘Justice Undone’ is a crime story based on an Icelandic trial dating back to the 19th century, when two half-siblings were accused of having committed incest: the novel pivots on the magistrate of the trial who has just returned from his studies in Copenhagen and is contemplating his new life in Iceland. The Icelandic landscape comes across poetically in Thor Vilhjálmsson’s prose style, with contemporary continental influences: according to the Adjudicating Committee, the novel describes a judge’s fateful journey through a magical landscape that reflects in a nuanced way the inner struggle with basic existential questions of guilt and responsibility, poetry and reality, in a language that unites Icelandic narrative tradition with innovative forms of expression.
