The Tower at the Edge of the World is William Heinesen's last novel written when he was 76, and is the summation of all of his work. He is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Nordic author of the twentieth century. William Heinesen describes The Tower at the Edge of the World as a poetic mosaic novel about earliest childhood. There is the perspective of both the child and the old man looking back at his life as a child. Although there is a lot of tangible detail and recognisable characters the book has a mythic quality. The events in a small community in the windswept Atlantic ocean being recorded by the writer in his room, his tower at the edge of the world, have a larger than life feel. Torshavn and his childhood are used to tell the history of the world and of creation. 'William Heinesen was, by a long way, the best writer that the Faroe Islands have ever produced. Many have him down as the most important Scandinavian novelist of the 20th century, and he only declined a Nobel prize because he thought it should go to someone who wrote in Faeroese, which he didn't.' Laurence Phelan in The Independent on Sunday
he Black Cauldron is not a war novel properly speaking, but a work of magic realism which traces a serious of boisterous, tragic-comic events in one of the more unusual western European societies. Spanning the tragedy of war, the clash of sectarian interests, the interplay of religion and sex, The Black Cauldron develops into a presentation in mythical form of the conflict between life and death, good and evil. William Heinesen's novels are intensely Faeroese, but so universal in their appeal that the reader automatically surrenders to their charm, their energy, their easy intensity and is overwhelmed by the perspective they convey. The Independent In The Black Cauldron, Heinesen provided an unsparing portrait of speculation, violence and intrigue in the Faeroes under British wartime occupation. The Times 'The Black Cauldron, arguably Heinesen's best book, is rigorously modernistic in approach and style - an intriguing challenging read, with the circling faces of Faroese society set against the British occupation of the Faroes in World War 11. If this whets your appetite, carry on with the same author's The Tower at the Edge of the World.' The Rough Guide
The Tower at the Edge of the World is William Heinesen's last novel written when he was 76, and is the summation of all of his work. He is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Nordic author of the twentieth century. William Heinesen describes The Tower at the Edge of the World as a poetic mosaic novel about earliest childhood. There is the perspective of both the child and the old man looking back at his life as a child. Although there is a lot of tangible detail and recognisable characters the book has a mythic quality. The events in a small community in the windswept Atlantic ocean being recorded by the writer in his room, his tower at the edge of the world, have a larger than life feel. Torshavn and his childhood are used to tell the history of the world and of creation. 'William Heinesen was, by a long way, the best writer that the Faroe Islands have ever produced. Many have him down as the most important Scandinavian novelist of the 20th century, and he only declined a Nobel prize because he thought it should go to someone who wrote in Faeroese, which he didn't.' Laurence Phelan in The Independent on Sunday
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