Halldor Kiljan Laxness's Books

7 Best Short Stories: Iceland

By: Steingrímur J. Þorsteinsson,Einar H. Kvaran,Guðmundur Friðjónsson,Jón Trausti,Gunnar Gunnarsson,Gudmundur G. Hagalin,Halldor Kiljan Laxness

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7 Best Short Stories: Iceland

By: Steingrímur J. Þorsteinsson,Einar H. Kvaran,Guðmundur Friðjónsson,Jón Trausti,Gunnar Gunnarsson,Gudmundur G. Hagalin,Halldor Kiljan Laxness

Icelanders have the highest literacy rates in the world. This is largely due to the rich literary tradition developed in this region. In this book, August Nemo brings seven short stories from different authors and periods so that you have an interesting overview of the story in Iceland. - The Story Of Audunn And The Bear by Anonymous. - A Dry Spell By Einar H. Kvaran. - The Old Hay by Guðmundur Friðjónsson. - When I Was On The Frigate by Jón Trausti. - Father And Son by Gunnar Gunnarsson. - The Fox Skin by Gudmundur G. Hagalin. - New Iceland by Halldor Kiljan Laxness.

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Page Count

109

Publisher

Tacet Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

8577773760

ISBN 13

9788577773763

The Islander

A Biography of Halldor Laxness

By: Halldor Gudmundsson

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The Islander

A Biography of Halldor Laxness

By: Halldor Gudmundsson

An enthralling, heartening study of a man of unflagging interest in life" Independent "A thoroughly researched biography" New York Review of Books "Provides readers of English with a perfect introduction to the life and works of an outstanding writer, one whom everyone should read" Irish Times "I am thoroughly convinced by Gudmundsson's portrayal of Laxness" J. M COETZEE A strong and memorable portrayal of a man who fought heroically to write for the world, but in one of its rarest languages. Halldór Laxness won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1955. During his life, which spanned nearly the entire century, he not only wrote sixty books, but also became an active participant in Europe's idealistic debates and struggles. In the 1930s, Laxness became attracted to Soviet communism. He travelled widely in the Soviet Bloc and, despite witnessing some atrocities, remained a defender of communism until the 1960s. But his political leanings never dominated his work. Laxness continually sought to divulge the world of beauty that lurks beneath the everyday, ensuring his artistry remained a sanctuary of humanism and reflection. In this biography, Guðmundsson has been granted access to unique material by Laxness' family. As a result, the interrelationships between Laxness' personal life, his politics and his career are meticulously examined. What emerges is a grand description of a fascinating personality in which the manifold conflicts of the 20th century are mirrored. "Laxness is a writer of the first degree, a writer I dreamed of coming close to" BORIS PASTERNAK, 1960 "When in a bad mood I have picked one of your books. And there the pure and deep sound has welcomed me, strong and charming from the first page" KAREN BLIXEN in an open letter to Laxness in 1952 Translated from Icelandic by Philip Roughton

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Page Count

758

Publisher

MacLehose Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1529433746

ISBN 13

9781529433746

The Fish Can Sing

By: Halldor Laxness

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The Fish Can Sing

By: Halldor Laxness

One of the most beloved novels from the Nobel Prize winner—"a beacon in twentieth-century literature" (Alice Munro, Nobel Prize-winning author of Dear Life). A poignant coming-of-age tale marked with the peculiar Icelandic blend of light irony and dark humor. • With an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres. The orphan Alfgrimur has spent an idyllic childhood sheltered in the simple turf cottage of a generous and eccentric elderly couple. Alfgrimur dreams only of becoming a fisherman like his adoptive grandfather, until he meets Iceland's biggest celebrity. The opera singer Gardar Holm’s international fame is a source of tremendous pride to tiny, insecure Iceland, though no one there has ever heard him sing. A mysterious man who mostly avoids his homeland and repeatedly fails to perform for his adoring countrymen, Gardar takes a particular interest in Alfgrimur’s budding musical talent and urges him to seek out the world beyond the one he knows and loves. But as Alfgrimur discovers that Gardar is not what he seems, he begins to confront the challenge of finding his own path without turning his back on where he came from.

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Page Count

268

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307389340

ISBN 13

9780307389343

World Light

By: Halldor Laxness

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World Light

By: Halldor Laxness

A magnificently humane novel from the acclaimed Icelandic Nobel Prize winner: as an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation, the belief that one day he will be a great poet. The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet’s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness. As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this extraordinary novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf’s ambition drives him onward—and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women—World Light demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.

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Page Count

626

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307430316

ISBN 13

9780307430311

Paradise Reclaimed

By: Halldor Laxness

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Paradise Reclaimed

By: Halldor Laxness

From the Nobel Prize winner comes a captivating novel about an idealistic Icelandic farmer who journeys to Mormon Utah and back in search of paradise. • "Full of an earthy poetry...a style wonderfully wise and entirely Scandinavian in its combination of magic and reality." —The New York Times Book Review • With an introduction by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres. The quixotic hero of this long-lost classic is Steinar of Hlidar, a generous but very poor man who lives peacefully on a tiny farm in nineteenth-century Iceland with his wife and two adoring young children. But when he impulsively offers his children's beloved pure-white pony to the visiting King of Denmark, he sets in motion a chain of disastrous events that leaves his family in ruins and himself at the other end of the earth, optimistically building a home for them among the devout polygamists in the Promised Land of Utah. By the time the broken family is reunited, Laxness has spun his trademark blend of compassion and comically brutal satire into a moving and spellbinding enchantment, composed equally of elements of fable and folkore and of the most humble truths.

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