Froid comme l’enfer
3.490 kr.Deux sœurs. Un thriller original et captivant où tout se joue dans l’atmosphère et les détails.
Aurora vit en Angleterre et sa sœur Isafold en Islande, elles sont très différentes et ont des relations compliquées. Isafold disparaît et leur mère, ne faisant pas la différence entre enquêtrice financière et enquêtrice policière, supplie Aurora d’aller chercher sa sœur.
Aurora ne peut pas s’empêcher de pratiquer ce qu’elle fait de mieux, démasquer les fraudeurs et les faire payer. Elle va donc profiter de ce voyage pour examiner de près certains investissements financiers douteux, et analyser la corruption islandaise tout en testant ses capacités de séduction sur deux hommes.
Elle découvrira surtout la violence domestique à laquelle était soumise Isafold et qu’elle niait farouchement subir ; au cours des témoignages qu’elle reçoit, elle voit évoluer les nuances de ses sentiments pour sa sœur. En même temps, des personnages inquiétants émergent peu à peu.
Nous suivons son enquête au fil des détails qu’elle nous donne sur les façons de vivre et de se parler, et par ce travail de dentellière elle nous fait entrer dans un monde plus complexe que ce dont il a l’air.
Rouge comme la mer
3.490 kr.Lorsque l’entrepreneur Flosi arrive chez lui pour dîner, il découvre que sa maison a été mise à sac et que sa femme Gudrún a disparu. Une lettre posée sur la table de la cuisine confirme qu’elle a été enlevée. Si Flosi n’accepte pas de payer une énorme rançon, Gudrún sera tuée. Effrayé, il prend contact avec Aurora, qui gagne sa vie en faisant des enquêtes financières et qui est spécia-liste de la discrétion. Alors que le brouillard s’installe, dans un automne islandais froid et pluvieux, les suspects se multiplient, les cheminements de l’argent créent des surprises, comme toujours, les mafias se rapprochent et tout prend un tour de plus en plus trouble. Dans le même temps, Aurora poursuit la recherche déroutante et dévastatrice de sa sœur, Ísafold, qui a disparu sans laisser de traces.
Un roman d’atmosphère prenant, des personnages attachants, un vrai suspense et un humour délectable, bref, un bon livre à la fois exotique et familier.
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.
The Whispering Muse
3.490 kr.Valdimar Haraldsson is an eccentric Icelander with dubious ideas about the relationship between fish consumption and Nordic superiority. To his delight, in the spring of 1949, he is invited to join a Danish merchant ship on its voyage to the Black Sea.
He is less delighted with the lack of fish on the menu. Worse, his fellow travellers show no interest in his ‘Fish and Culture’ lecture. They prefer the enthralling tales of the second mate, Caeneus, who every evening regales them with his adventures aboard the Argo, on Jason’s legendary quest for the Golden Fleece.
A master storyteller, Sjón weaves together Greek and Nordic myths with the legacies of the Second World War in this mesmerising novel, which reminds us that everything is capable of change.
Red Milk
3.490 kr.Gunnar Kampen grows up in Reykjavík during the Second World War in a household fiercely opposed to Hitler and Nazism. A caring brother and son, at nineteen he seems set to lead a conventional life. Yet in the spring of 1958, he founds a covert, anti-Semitic nationalist party with ties to a burgeoning international network of neo-Nazis – a cause that will take him on a clandestine mission to England from which he never returns.
In this striking novel, inspired by one of the ringleaders of an Icelandic neo-Nazi group formed in the late 1950s, Sjón masterfully constructs the portrait of an ordinary young man who becomes a right-wing zealot. Exposing the roots of the far-right movements of today, Red Milk is a timely reminder that the seeds of extremism can be hard to detect and the allure of fascism remains dangerously potent.
From the Mouth of the Whale
3.490 kr.In this magical evocation of a vanished age, a poet and self-taught healer is banished in 1635 to a barren island off Iceland – a place darkened by superstition, poverty and cruelty.
With only a purple sandpiper for company, Jónas Pálmason retraces his path to exile, recalling his exorcism of a walking corpse, the massacre of innocent Basque whalers at the hands of local villagers and the deaths of three of his children.
But amid the cacophony of Copenhagen he will find hope and, finally, recognition of his enlightened ideas.
CoDex 1962
3.490 kr.Jósef Loewe enters the world as a lump of clay – carried in a hatbox by his Jewish father Leo, a fugitive in WWII Germany.
Taking refuge in a small-town guesthouse, Leo discovers a kindred spirit in the young woman who nurses him back to health and together they shape the clay into a baby. But en route to safety in Iceland, he is robbed of the ring needed to bring the child to life. It is not until 1962 that Jósef can be ‘born’, only to grow up with a rare disease. Fifty-three years on, it leads him into the hands of a power-hungry Icelandic geneticist, just when science and politics are threatening to lead us all down a dark, dangerous road.
At once playful and profoundly serious, this remarkable novel melds multiple genres into a unique whole: a mind-bending read and a biting, timely attack on nationalism.
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.