The Blue Fox
3.490 kr.On a stark Icelandic mountainside, the imposing Reverend Baldur Skuggason hunts an elusive blue vixen for her near-mythical pelt. The treacherous journey across snow and ice will push his physical and mental endurance to the limit.
In Baldur Skuggason’s parish, a young woman with Down’s Syndrome is buried. After being found shackled to the timbers of a shipwreck in 1868, she was rescued by the naturalist Fridrik B. Fridjonsson. Now he will open the package she always carried with her, hoping to solve the puzzle of her origins.
As the ice begins to melt, the mystery surrounding the trio’s connected fates is unravelled in this spellbinding fable, an exquisite tale of metamorphosis by one of Iceland’s most acclaimed writers.
Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was
3.490 kr.Reykjavik, 1918. The eruptions of the Katla volcano darken the sky night and day. Yet despite the natural disaster, the shortage of coal and the Great War still raging in the outside world, life in the small capital goes on as always.
Sixteen-year-old Máni Steinn lives for the movies. Awake, he lives on the fringes of society. Asleep, he dreams in pictures, the threads of his own life weaving through the tapestry of the films he loves.
When the Spanish flu epidemic comes ashore, killing hundreds of townspeople and forcing thousands to their sick besds, the shadows that linger at the edges of existence grow darker and Máni is forced to re-evaluate both the society around him and his role in it.
Evoking the moment when Iceland’s saga culture met the new narrative form of the cinema and when the isolated island became swept up in global events, this is the story of a misfit transformed by his experiences in a world where life and death, reality and imagination, secrets and revelations jostle for dominance.
Harm
3.490 kr.When wealthy doctor Ríkarður Magnússon goes to sleep in his luxurious caravan and doesn’t wake up, detectives Guðgeir Fransson and Elsa Guðrún are called to the Westman Islands to investigate what looks like murder.
Suspicion immediately falls on Ríkharður’s young, beautiful and deeply troubled girlfriend – but there are no easy answers in this case as they are drawn into family feuds, disgruntled friends and colleagues, and the presence of a group of fitness-obsessed over-achievers with secrets of their own.
As their investigation makes progress, Guðgeir and Elsa Guðrún are forced to confront their own preconceptions and prejudices as they uncover the sinister side of Ríkharður’s past.
Harm is the third novel featuring the soft-spoken Reykjavík detective Guðgeir Fransson to appear in English. Sólveig Pálsdóttir again weaves a complex web of intrigue that plays out in the Westman Islands, remote southern Iceland and Reykjavík while asking some searching questions about things society accepts at face value – and others it is not prepared to tolerate.
Horses
4.590 kr.The Icelandic horse has endured much during its millennium of service to a hard people in a cold land. Blazing trails through lava fields, shuttling between far-flung fjords, starved, drowned and even brought back from the dead. Here we see Iceland’s hardiest helper from every angle, the same beast who first set hoof on Iceland’s shores in the 9th century, through stories free from all the hype and schmaltz of the tourist brochures.
With their first book, Birds, Hjörleifur Hjartarson and Rán Flygenring dazzled us with Iceland’s fascinating feathered friends. Now they’re back in the saddle with their unique take on Iceland’s iconic equine.
Vigdís: A Book About the World’s First Female President
4.390 kr.Vigdís Finnbogadóttir made history in 1980 when she became the world’s first woman to be democratically elected president. Her rise to Iceland’s highest office caused ripples throughout the nation and beyond, challenging the conservative ideas of older generations and inspiring girls and women to think big.
In this acclaimed picture book by Rán Flygenring, one of Iceland’s most celebrated illustrators, readers are invited to join a young and imaginative writer-in-the-making, who pays an unforgettable visit to Vigdís on a mission to write the president’s life story. The book received the Reykjavík Children’s Book Award and was selected as the booksellers’ favorite title as well.
Elves
5.990 kr.Neighbor inexplicably come into money? Baby suddenly an un holyterror? Home a wreck after Christmas? Appliances constantly breaking down? Birthmarks shaped like magical runes in the family? Got a friend no one else can see?
Icelandic elves are a rare breed among elfkind for the mysteriously profound bond they share with real-world Icelanders. Here we see the Icelandic elf in a new light as well as the fraught relations between the hidden nation and humans since Iceland’s settlement, including underworld deals, blood-soaked holiday parties, radical eco-activism, forbidden love in the beyond and the wildly heroic exploits of shepherds and milkmaids.
Time and again Hjörleifur Hjartarson and Rán Flygenring have joined forces to examine the wonders of Icelandic nature and culture. They gave us high-flying antics with Birds and got back in the saddle for Horses. Now they peek behind the curtain into the hidden world of Elves.
Birds
4.590 kr.Warning!
This is not what you’d call a great field guide for identifying birds. Its illustrations are badly drawn, and its text is full of biases and affectations. You should keep that in mind while reading. But if you’re interested in provocative stories about Icelandic birds’ inclination for endangerment, penchant for pageantry, and addiction to amatory adventures – not to mention all their quirks of character and personal peccadillos – well then: this is the book for you.
Fun-loving Hjörleifur Hjartarson and Rán Flygenring give readers a bird’s–eye view of the most prominent characteristics of every Icelandic bird in word and image, and, thankfully, never take themselves too seriously in the process. The result is a unique, unusual, but nevertheless informative encyclopedia of Icelandic birds.
Hjörleifur Hjartarson has a B.Ed. in education and has also worked as an author, translator, and musician alongside his job as a teacher. He’s written a variety of exhibition notes and explanatory texts for both museums and theatres. It was one such exhibition project that lead him into the world of Icelandic birds, which have fluttered around him ever since.
Rán Flygenring is an illustrator and designer. Her projects have been varied: she’s illustrated books and blogs, doodled on walls and stamps and created unique images for events ranging from beer festivals to science conferences. Rán calls no one place home and would, without a doubt, be classified as a migratory bird.
