Haldór Laxness (1902–1998) was an Icelandic novelist, playwright, and essayist, celebrated for his profound exploration of Icelandic society and culture. Born as Halldór Guðjónsson in Reykjavík, Laxness adopted his pen name early in his career. He gained international acclaim for his masterpiece “Independent People” (1934), which depicted the struggles of rural Icelanders. Laxness’s literary works often reflected his socialist ideals and deep connection to Icelandic folklore and landscapes. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955, he remains one of Iceland’s most esteemed literary figures, leaving an indelible mark on Icelandic literature and global literary discourse.

From the Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic author: a magnificent novel that recalls Iceland’s medieval epics and classics, set in the early twentieth century starring an ordinary sheep farmer and his heroic determination to achieve independence. – “A strange story, vibrant and alive…. There is a rare beauty in its telling.” –Atlantic Monthly. If Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book’s protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to free himself is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic. Having spent eighteen years in humiliating servitude, Bjartur wants nothing more than to raise his flocks unbeholden to any man. But Bjartur’s spirited daughter wants to live unbeholden to him. What ensues is a battle of wills that is by turns harsh and touching, elemental in its emotional intensity and intimate in its homely detail. Vast in scope and deeply rewarding, Independent People is a masterpiece. Buy this book on Bookshop.org
“This is a remarkable achievement and will hopefully lead to a revival of interest in an oft-overlooked literary genius.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review. A fresh translation of Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness’s modernist masterpiece, Salka Valka. A feminist coming of age tale, an elegy to the plight of the working class and the corrosive effects of social and economic inequality, and a poetic window into the arrival of modernity in a tiny industrial town, Salka Valka is a novel of epic proportions, living and breathing with its expansive cast of characters, filled with tenderness, humor, and remarkable pathos.
On a mid-winter night, an eleven-year-old Salvör and her unmarried mother Sigurlína disembark at the remote, run-down fishing village of Óseyri, where life is “lived in fish and consists of fish.” The two women struggle to make their way amidst the domineering, salt-worn men of the town and their unsolicited attention, and, after Sigurlína’s untimely death, Salvör pays for her funeral and walks home alone, precipitating her coming of age as a daring, strong-willed young woman who chops off her hair, earns her own wages, educates herself through political and philosophical texts, and, most significantly, becomes an advocate for the town’s working class, ultimately organizing a local chapter of the seamen’s union.
“Nowhere in Laxness’s novels is the conflict between the shining ideal of socialism and the dignity of individual people on plainer display than in Salka Valka… It never even occurs to Salka that the bastards might grind her down.” — Salvatore Scibona, The New Yorker. Buy this book on Bookshop.org

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