Description
Book SynopsisThis extraordinary collection, the first anthology of Icelandic short fiction published in English translation, features work by twenty of Iceland’s most popular and celebrated living authors—including Andri Snær Magnason, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Kristín Ómarsdóttir, and Auður Jónsdóttir—granddaughter of Halldór Laxness, who won the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Celebrated in Europe and Scandinavia but less known in the English-speaking world, these writers traverse realms of darkness and light that will be familiar to readers who have fallen under the spell of Scandinavian fiction. While uniquely Icelandic in topography and tenor, with a touch of the island’s supernatural charm, the stories traffic in the enduring and universal complexities of human nature. Here is a fictional universe where the ghosts of Vikings and spirits tread, volcanoes grumble underfoot, and writers trip the Northern Lights fantastic across the landscape of the Icelandic imagination.
At long last, readers can enjoy award-winning stories now expertly rendered into English by the country’s most renowned translators. In “Killer Whale” a father contemplates euthanasia for a terminally ill child, in “Self Portrait” a vacationing family in Spain crosses paths with migrants, in “Escape for Men” a woman searches for an ex-lover in the South of France, and in “The Most Precious Secret” the nature of artists and the art world is mercilessly revealed. Both the Viking myths of Iceland’s forefathers and the cutting-edge modern world of the country today are brilliantly alive in these remarkable and original stories.
This collection is an excursion to an island where almost two million travelers descend yearly on a population of 345 thousand natives. Iceland is the place Björk calls home, the location where Game of Thrones was filmed—a place with open lava fields, glaciers, and iceberg lagoons among other natural wonders that is becoming one of the “hottest” tourist destinations on earth.
Out of the Blue transports readers to Iceland’s timeless and magical island of Vikings and geographical wonders, and it promises to be a seminal collection that will define Icelandic literature in translation for decades to come.
Contributors: Auður Ava Olafsdóttir, Kristín Eiríksdóttir, Þórarinn Eldjárn, Gyrðir Elíasson, Einar Örn Gunnarsson, Ólafur Gunnarsson, Einar Már Guðmundsson, Auður Jónsdóttir, Gerður Kristný, Andri Snær Magnason, Óskar Magnússon, Bragi Ólafsson, Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Óskar Árni Óskarsson, Magnús Sigurðsson, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Ágúst Borgþór Sverrisson, Guðmundur Andri Thorsson, Þórunn Erlu-Valdimarsdóttir, Rúnar Helgi Vignisson.
Trade Review"Out of the Blue reads like a series of lively dreams, by turns magical and stoic and strange, and each sensational. It's no surprise these stories come from the land of Halldor Laxness. He has an heir in these pages."—Peter Geye, author of Wintering
"Out of the Blue is a collection of Iceland’s leading contemporary writers and all my favorite authors in one volume. It’s an absolutely unique insight into Iceland's culture, mentality, and spirit—a country where the short story is as valued as the Sagas. If you plan to travel to Iceland and want to prepare, all you need to do is read this book."—Jón Gnarr, writer and former mayor of Reykjavík
"Perhaps it is because philosophy reached these shores comparatively late that Icelandic writers have never felt bound by the truth. While recognizing no literature except that which springs from reality, they reserve the right to distort the truth according to the demands of their tales."—Sjón, from the Foreword
"Helen Mitsios is to be congratulated on having compiled a highly readable and often entertaining miscellany of writing from a European literary culture that is still not as well known to the rest of the world as it ought to be."—Nordic Voices in Translation
"This ambitious collection put out by the University of Minnesota Press is one of a kind."—The Reykjavik Graepvine
"Offers a decent spectrum of Icelandic voices."—Times Literary Supplement
"An excellent collection of short stories."—Tony’s Reading List
"These are stories by and about Icelanders, not Iceland filtered through a tourist’s lens. These are stories of life, love, family, and the tenuous yet unbreakable connections between our ancestral pasts and our mundane presents. And while there’s something universal about those experiences, there’s also something distinctly Icelandic about it. " —American Book Review
Table of ContentsContents
Foreword
Preface
Helen Mitsios
Self Portrait
Auður Jónsdóttir
Afternoon by the Pacific Ocean
Kristín Ómarsdóttir
Escape for Men
Gerður Kristný
The Most Precious Secret
Einar Örn Gunnarsson
Killer Whale
Ólafur Gunnarsson
The Secret Service of Ravens and the Three Hens
Þórunn Erlu-Valdimarsdóttir
One Hundred and Fifty Square Meters
Kristín Eiríksdóttir
Grass
Andri Snær Magnason
The Black Dog
Gyrðir Elíasson
Late Afternoon in Four Parts
Bragi Ólafsson
SMS from Catalonia
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
A Pen Changes Hands
Óskar Árni Óskarsson
The Cook
Óskar Magnússon
Travel Companion
Rúnar Helgi Vignisson
The Parables
Magnús Sigurðsson
The Horse in Greenland
Einar Már Guðmundsson
Laundry Day
Águst Sverrisson
Scorn Pole
Þórarinn Eldjárn
Harmonica Sonata in C Major
Guðmundur Andri Thorsson
The Universe and the Deep Velvet Dress
Jón Kalman Stefanssón
Contributors
