The Poetic Edda
3.490 kr.‘She sees, coming up a second time, Earth from the ocean, eternally green;the waterfalls plunge, an eagle soars above them,over the mountain hunting fish.’
After the terrible conflagration of Ragnarok, the earth rises serenely again from the ocean, and life is renewed. The Poetic Edda begins with The Seeress’s Prophecy which recounts the creation of the world, and looks forward to its destruction and rebirth. In this great collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry, the exploits of gods and humans are related.
The one-eyed Odin, red-bearded Thor, Loki the trickster, the lovely goddesses and the giants who are their enemies walk beside the heroic Helgi, Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer, Brynhild the shield-maiden, and the implacable Gudrun. New in this revised translation are the quest-poem The Lay of Svipdag and The Waking of Angantyr, in which a girl faces down her dead father to retrieve his sword. Comic, tragic, instructive, grandiose, witty and profound, the poems of the Edda have influenced artists from Wagner to Tolkien and a new generation of video-game and film makers.
The Quiet Mother
4.390 kr.A woman is found murdered in her Reykjavík home, her apartment ransacked. On her desk lies a note with retired detective Konrad’s phone number. Days earlier, she had begged him to find the child she gave up nearly fifty years ago. But Konrad, reluctant to reopen old wounds, turned her away. Now, haunted by guilt, he vows to uncover the truth – for her and for himself.
As Konrad digs into the woman’s past, he is drawn into a web of secrets, lies and betrayal. Each revelation points to a hidden life that connects her death to a decades-old murder – and to shadows from Konrad’s own family history.
The Quiet Mother is a masterful blend of human tragedy and relentless suspense, where every discovery comes at a cost. Arnaldur Indridason once again proves why he is the voice of Nordic Noir, delivering a harrowing tale of guilt and redemption.
Travelling Passions: The Hidden Life of Vilhjalmur Stefansson
1.290 kr.Vilhjalmur Stefansson has long been known for his groundbreaking work as an anthropologist and expert on Arctic peoples. His three expeditions to the Canadian Arctic in the early 1900s, as well as his expertise in northern anthropology, helped create his public image as an heroic, Hemingway-esque figure in the annals of twentieth-century exploration. But the emotional and private life of Stefansson the man have remained hidden, until now.
New evidence of this other life has recently been discovered: a collection of love letters between Stefansson and his fiance Orpha Cecil Smith were found in a New Hampshire flea market; Stefansson’s field diaries have revealed elegant essays and insightful commentary on Inupiat society; baptismal records have revealed that Stefansson had a son, Alex, with his informant and guide, Fanny Pannigabluk; and through Web searches and a private detective, Palsson found and conducted interviews with the descendents of both Cecil Smith and Alex Stefansson.
Travelling Passions sheds new light on Stefanssonís life and work, focussing on the tension between his private life and the theories that brought his name to the halls of fame. Palsson draws a clear, vivid, and in many ways unexpected picture of the mythical figure of Stefansson.
A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder
3.490 kr.In A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder, written by contemporary Icelandic poet Brynja Hjálmsdóttir and translated by Rachel Britton, one woman lives in a glass ball that is being shaken by someone else. This book of poems, however, is always shaking itself up, leaping between the extreme and the daily, the gross and the delicious, between being scared and being scary. These surreal, visceral, and somehow polite poems explore what it can be like to be a woman and to slither through and away from threat to find voice and form and power, no matter how strange. The apocalyptic utopia we arrive at in this book—The Whore’s City—is a perfect model to move to in one’s head: feminist, funny, odd, and a little disgusting, all towards transformation.
Death at the Sanatorium
3.490 kr.High up in the mountains stands a sanatorium. Once a hospital dedicated to treating tuberculosis, it now sits haunted by the ghosts of its past.
One wing of the hospital remains open and houses six employees: the caretaker, two doctors, two nurses and a young research assistant. Despite the wards closing decades ago, they remain at the hospital to conduct research. But the cold corridors, draughty windows and echoey halls are constant reminders of the building’s dark history.
When one of the nurses, Yrsa, is found brutally murdered, they discover that death has never left this place – and neither did its secrets. None can escape this terrifying legacy. Despite just four suspects the case is never solved and remains open for two decades.
Until a young criminologist named Helgi Reykdal attempts to finally lay the ghosts of the hospital’s past to rest . . .
Your Absence is Darkness
3.690 kr.When a local woman offers to reunite him with her sister, he realises he’s lost not only his bearings, but his memory as well: he doesn’t recognise either woman, and as their stories unfold, he is plunged into a history spanning centuries and lives: a city girl drawn to the fjords by the memory of a blue-eyed gaze; a farmer’s wife whose essay on the humble earthworm changes the course of lives; a pastor who writes to dead poets and falls in love with a stranger; a musician plagued by cosmic loneliness, who discovers that his life has been a lie; and an alcoholic transfixed by the night sky.
Faced with the violence of destiny and the effects of choices, made and avoided, that cascade between lives, each discovers the cost of following the magnetic needle of the heart. An incandescent, audacious novel about the misfortune of mortality and the strange salve of time, Your Absence is Darkness is a spellbinding story of death, desire and the perfect agony of star-crossed love.
Translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton
Bónus Poetry
2.490 kr.Bónus Poetry takes the reader on a mythological journey through the aisles of an undisclosed Bónus Supermarket branch, and is based on Dante’s Divina Commedia. Starting in “Paradiso” (the fruit and vegetable section), we travel through “Inferno” (meat and frozen goods) before finally ending up in the “Purgatorio” (cleaning products).
The book was initially published by Bónus Supermarkets in Iceland and sold at supermarket counters on eternal “special offer”. The author signed the same contract as every other producer: “If the consumer is harmed by the product, the producer is liable.” Bónus Poetry became the biggest selling poetry volume in the history of Iceland. No consumers have yet been harmed but please call the service desk in case of headaches, dizziness or general bursts of poem disorder.
The Mark
3.490 kr.The Icelandic Psychological Association has prepared a test. They call it a sensitivity assessment: a way of measuring a person’s empathy and identifying the potential for anti-social behaviour.
In a few days’ time, Iceland will vote on whether to make the test compulsory for every citizen. The nation is bitterly divided. Some believe the test makes society safer; others decry it as a violation.
As the referendum draws closer, four people – Vetur, Eyja, Tristan and Ólafur – find themselves caught in the teeth of the debate. Each of them will have to reckon with uncomfortable questions: Where do the rights of society end and the rights of the individual begin? When does utopia become dystopia?No matter which side wins, they will all have to find a way to live with the result.
Touch
3.490 kr.When the pandemic hits, Kristofer is forced to shutter his successful restaurant in Reykjavik, sending him into a spiral of uncertainty, even as his memory seems to be failing. But an uncanny bolt from the blue—a message from Miko Nakamura, a woman whom he’d known in the sixties when they were students in London—both inspires and rattles him, as he is drawn inexorably back into a love story that has marked him for life. Even as the pandemic upends his world, Kristofer finds himself pulled toward an answer to the mystery of Miko’s sudden departure decades before, compelling him to travel to London and Japan as the virus threatens to shut everything down.
A heart-wrenching love story and an absorbing mystery, Touch delves into the secrets of the past to explore the hidden lives that we all possess, the pain and beauty of our past loves and friendships that continue to leave their mark on us. Searching and lyrically rendered by acclaimed author Olaf Olafsson, Touch is a stunning tribute to the weight of history and the complexities of the human heart.
Lavaland
4.690 kr.Lavaland is a powerful tale of love and loss, of grief and surrender, and ultimately of great courage and resilience in the face of life’s cruel blows.
LínLín is a survivor who stands strong despite a series of tragic losses she has experienced in her life. However, when a volcanic eruption threatens to consume her beloved Sæluból, the summer cottage where she and her family and friends have spent so many magical moments, she is faced with a critical decision as she recalls the memories, secrets and sorrows that have shaped her.
Novelist and poet Steinunn Sigurðardóttir, renowned for her acute insight into the human condition, her keen wit and engaging style, has been at the forefront of Icelandic literature for decades and her published work numbers in the dozens. Her latest novel, Lavaland, with its skillfully crafted multi-layered narrative, resonates with emotional depth and humanity — qualities that earned her the Icelandic Literary Prize. An unforgettable story that leaves a lasting impression.
Translated by Lorenza Garcia.
The Prose Edda
2.490 kr.Composed in Iceland in the 13th Century, The Prose Edda is the most renowned of all works of Scandinavian literature, taking readers on a voyage through an enthralling world of gods, giants, dwarfs and monsters. From the beginning of the universe to the dreaded Twilight of the Gods, this is the most extensive source of Norse mythology surviving today.
A Giant Love Story
3.990 kr.A Giant Love Story, by Guðrún Helgadóttir and Brian Pilkington, is one of Iceland’s most popular children’s books. It was first published in Iceland in 1981 and has since been translated into several other languages.
A Giant Love Story gives you an unforgettable insight into the magic world of Icelandic legend and folklore. It is an exciting story – filled with love, compassion and humour, that relates to children all over the world.
Guðrún Helgadóttir is one of Iceland’s most beloved writers of children’s books, and has received both Icelandic and foreign awards for her work, including the Nordic Children’s Book Award.
Brian Pilkington is a well-known artist in Iceland. His exceptionally beautiful and lively illustrations in A Giant Love Story give the story an aura of adventure.
