1. Hallgrímur Helgason

Hallgrímur Helgason was born in Reykjavik, Iceland. He started out as a painter and has held over 30 exhibitions in various countries. His best known book is 101 Reykjavik, which has appeared in 13 languages and was nominated for the Nordic Prize for Literature. A movie based on the novel was released in 2000 to international acclaim. Hallgrímur’s novel The Author of Iceland received the Icelandic Prize for Literature in 2001. Beside his novels, Hallgrímur has written plays, poetry and countless articles for newspapers and magazines home and abroad, as well as being an active political analyst in the Icelandic media. In 2008 The Hitman’s Guide to House Cleaning was published in Iceland, the first book Hallgrímur has ever written in English. It won the German prize for The Quaintest Title Award in 2010. His latest book, The Woman at 1000 C, was published in 2011.

Bibliography

The Woman at 1000°C (2011)
Reykjavik 101 (2002)
The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning (2012) 

2. EINAR MAR GUDMUNDSSON

(b.1954) is a novelist, short-story writer and poet, one of the most widely translated Icelandic authors born in the post-war period. A storyteller with a lyrical perceptive and humorous style, his work charts the growth of urban culture in the capital and the larger-than-life characters that it spawns. Gudmundsson has received many awards and distinctions for his books, such as the Norwegian jørnson Prize, the Scharnberg Memorial Award in Denmark, The Karen Blixen Medal and The Guiseppe Acerbi Literary Prize in Italy. In 2012 Einar Mar Gudmundsson received the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize, dubbed “The little Nobel”, for his contribution to literature.
 

ICELANDIC KINGS
Íslenskir kóngar, novel, 2012

The Knudsen clan has ruled Tangavik for more than two centuries. They have built herring factories, warehouses and shops, sat on the town council, owned factories, boats, fishing ships, freezing plants, conducted brass bands, choirs and women’s associations. The Knudsen clan has built empires and lost them. It has disappeared and then reappeared, been both immensely popular and detested, and everything in between.

The Knudsen clan in Tangavik is a colourful and party-loyal family with hard-working shipowners, dutiful bank managers, boozy shop owners, popular MPs, feisty beauty queens, and even loveable village idiots. It’s story is intricately woven into the story of the people, having ruled and manipulated it from earliest memory. The narrator is a former pupil of Arnfinnur Knudsen, one of the clan’s most impressive members of all time, and one of the most colourful characters in fiction. Einar Mar tackled the Icelandic economy in his last two poetical essay-stories, The White Book and Zero, Bank Street. Now he deals with the country’s upper class with great wit and humour. 

3. OSKAR HRAFN THORVALDSSON

(b. 1973) worked as a reporter and news director for Channel Two and the Internet news media outlet Vísir, but quit in the wake of reports of alleged capital transfers made by several of the corporate raiders. The Millionaires is his first book.

THE MILLIONAIRES
Martröð millanna, crime novel, 2010

The corporate raider, millionaire, lady’s man, and arrogant snob Reynir Sveinn Reynisson is found brutally murdered in the hot tub at his luxurious home. All of his fingers have been cut off and float around him in the tub — except for his right-hand thumb. The police detective Gunnar Finnbjörnsson and his men have few leads to pursue at first. Nor does it help that his old schoolmate, the newspaper editor Hörður Sveinsson, publishes the investigation’s findings in his paper as soon as any are made. But little by little the circle tightens … Among those who appear in this fast-paced and gripping narrative are a hitman from Lithuania, a dyslexic corporate raider, an amoral banker, Belgian diamond brokers, the Russian mafia, and a strip-club king who is none too bright. We are granted insight into a deranged lifestyle with its private yacht parties, cocaine and escorts, squandering of money and one-upmanship in decadence. We follow along with the twists and turns of reckless business deals, rapid growth and expansion and an equally huge plunge downward.

4. VILBORG DAVIDSDOTTIR 

(b.1965) is the author of popularly acclaimed historical novels, including, among others, The Raven which was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize.

CRIMSON SKY
Vígroði, historical novel, 2012

The year is 865. Audur the Wise, independent and headstrong Viking woman, raises her son on her own in Caithness, Britain, where the heathen Norse have settled and driven out the Christian natives. Afraid that her chieftain father in the Hebrides will marry her off again for political gain, Audur has stayed away from her kin since her divorce from Olaf the White, the Norse king of Dublin. Yet, after more than a decade in Caithness, she now shows up at her father’s hall in the Hebrides to attend her brother´s wedding. As customary in the beginning of winter, the women sacrifice a boar to the gods and goddesses and look into the future, foretelling blood red skies above the British Isles: The Norse are fated to yet again go viking in the Western Seas. And indeed there is unrest and strife in the north of the British Isles. The natives are becoming more defiant with each passing day and the ambitious Earl of Orkney hungers for power on the mainland. Then, to the astonishment of all, the warrior king of Dublin invades Scotland in mid-winter and it soon becomes inevitable that the paths of Audur and Olaf the White shall cross again...

At the same time tales are told of a new and unsettled country in the far north, where the mountains breathe fire, glaciers adorn the skyline, and rivers and lakes swarm with fish. Maybe the best option is to leave the battlefields in the lands of the hostile Picts and Scots, set sail and seek this island of fire and ice at the edge of the world...

Crimson Sky is a sequel to the best-selling novel Audur, nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize in 2009.

5. VIGDIS GRIMSDOTTIR 

(b.1953) has received widespread recognition for her work and her books have been translated into several languages. Vigdis has won many prizes for her writing, including among other things, the Icelandic Literary Prize. Two of her novels have been adapted for the stage in Sweden and Iceland, and one of her novels, Cold Light (Kaldaljós), has been made into a major motion picture.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?
Trúir þú á töfra?, novel, 2011

“My village nestles in a deep valley between tall
mountains. Some say that it is in the Western
Fjords, others that it’s in the Eastern Fjords and
yet others maintain that it is in the highlands;
if truth be told, the people who live here haven’t
got a clue where they are ...”

The narrator is a twelve-year-old girl who is named after Nina Björk Arnadottir, her mother’s favourite poetess, and she describes life in her village which, surrounded by a dark wall, rests under a heavy glass dome. In this shut-in world an experiment to create the perfect community is taking place; here each and everyone plays whatever part he or she is allocated, under a reign of terror by the powers that be; here life is completely choreographed. But little Nina has her hopes and dreams and, driven by her namesake’s poems, genuine curiosity and a yearning for beauty, she seeks the freedom everyone is missing.

Do you believe in Magic? is a story that takes place in the near future and leads its readers into a maze of arbitrary power and cruelty that no-one understands – as well as to the pure joy of life inspired by the scent of the past and the fragrance of the future. While this work by Vigdis Grimsdottir is a true ode to poetry it also reveals a human being’s vulnerability in a complicated struggle for existence where only magic can light up the path.

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W sprawie materiałów recenzenckich prosimy o kontakt mailowy z Justyną Czechowską pod adresem justyna@literatura.com.pl

The Icelandic Literature Fund grants translation subsidy to foreign publishers outside the Nordic countries. The application must be accompanied by a signed copy of the publishing contract between the publisher and the Icelandic copyright holder, a signed copy of the contract between the publisher and the translator. Applicants are also asked to submit the translator’s CV and general information on the publishing house.

Application deadlines:

January 15th, March 15th, May 15th, July 15th, September 15, November 15th.

Music is an intrinsic part of everyday life, and yet the history of its development from single notes to multi-layered orchestration can seem bewilderingly specialised and complex.

In his energetic tour through 40,000 years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, Howard Goodall does away with stuffy biographies, unhelpful labels and tired terminology. Instead he leads us through the story of music as it happened, idea by idea, so that each musical innovation – harmony, notation, sung theatre, the orchestra, dance music, recording, broadcasting – strikes us with its original force. He focuses on what changed when and why, picking out the discoveries that revolutionised man-made sound and bringing to life musical visionaries from the little-known Pérotin to the colossus of Wagner. Along the way, he also gives refreshingly clear descriptions of what musicis and how it works: what scales are all about, why some chords sound discordant and what all post-war pop songs have in common.

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W sprawie materiałów recenzenckich prosimy o kontakt mailowy z Justyną Czechowską pod adresem justyna@literatura.com.pl