Books from Iceland
48 popular icelandic books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Europe Challenge" were written by authors from Iceland.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
31.
Njal's Saga by Unknown EN
Description:
Written in the thirteenth century, Njal's Saga is a story that explores perennial human problems-from failed marriages to divided loyalties, from the law's inability to curb human passions to the terrible consequences when decent men and women are swept up in a tide of violence beyond their control. It is populated by memorable and complex characters like Gunnar of Hlidarendi, a powerful warrior with an aversion to killing, and the not-so-villainous Mord Valgardsson. Full of dreams, strange prophecies, violent power struggles, and fragile peace agreements, Njal's Saga tells the compelling stor... continue
32.
One Station Away by Olaf Olafsson EN
Description:
From the critically acclaimed Olaf Olafsson, an intimate yet sweeping story of a New York neurologist and the three women who change his life An overlooked pianist who finally receives fraught success after decades of disappointment. An elusive dancer whose untimely death her fiancé is desperate to untangle. A mysterious patient who is comatose after a violent accident. These are the three women who animate Olaf Olafsson’s brilliantly rendered One Station Away. Magnus, a New York neurologist—son to one, lover to another, and doctor to a third—is the thread that binds these women’s stories toge... continue
33.
Pasaje de las sombras by Arnaldur Indriðason ES
Description:
Un hombre anciano es encontrado muerto en su departamento. Ciertos indicios y recuerdos llevan a Konrad, ya retirado de la policía, a investigar la relación entre su muerte y algunos hechos ocurridos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Así transcurre esta historia en dos tiempos, un modo que parece gustarle al autor, que por momentos me generó un poco de confusión por ciertos paralelos.
Otra correcta novela de Indridason, propicia para quienes son sus seguidores, y para quienes quieren iniciarse con la literatura policial ambientada en Islandia.
34.
Description:
Gunnar Kampen grows up in Iceland during the Second World War in a household fiercely opposed to Hitler and Nazism. At nineteen he seems set for a conventional, dutiful life. And yet in the spring of 1958, he founds a covert, anti-Semitic nationalist party, a cause that will take him on a clandestine mission to England from which he never returns.
Inspired by one of the ringleaders of a little-known neo-Nazi group that was formed in Iceland in the 1950s, Sjon's portrait of an ardent fascist is as thought-provoking as it is disturbing. As this taut and fascinating novel suggests, the se... continue
35.
Reykjavík : A Crime Story by Ragnar Jonasson, Katrín Jakobsdóttir EN
Description:
What happened to Lára?
Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lára decides to spend the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, the girl disappears without a trace. Time passes, and the mystery becomes Iceland‘s most infamous unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there?
Thirty years later, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into... continue
36.
Rio Negro by Arnaldur Indridasson ES
Description:
El cadáver de un joven degollado aparece en su casa del centro de Reikiavik. No ha habido lucha. No hay arma. Los únicos indicios que encuentra la policía son un chal de mujer y unas pastillas que sugieren una oscura historia de violación y venganza.
37.
Rosa candida by Audur Ava Olafsdottir ES
Description:
El joven Arnljótur decide abandonar su casa, a su hermano gemelo autista, a su padre octogenario y los paisajes crepusculares de montañas de lava cubiertas de líquenes. Su madre acaba de tener un accidente y, al borde de la muerte, aún reúne fuerzas para llamarle y darle unos últimos consejos. Un fuerte lazo les une: el invernadero donde ella cultivaba una extraña variedad de rosa: la rosa candida, de ocho pétalos y sin espinas. Fue allí donde una noche, imprevisiblemente, Arnljótur amó a Anna, una amiga de un amigo. En un país cercano, en un antiguo monasterio, existe una rosaleda legendaria.... continue
39.
Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson EN
Description:
Taut and terrifying, a startling debut from an extraordinary new talent, taking Nordic Noir to soaring new heights Siglufjorour: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors, and which is accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thor Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik, with a past that he s unable to leave behind. When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theater, Ari is dragged str... continue
40.
Summer Light, and Then Comes the Night : A Novel by Jon Kalman Stefansson EN
Description:
From the "Icelandic Dickens (Irish Examiner)," a writer who "shares the elemental grandeur of Cormac McCarthy" (Times Literary Supplement), comes this profound and playful masterwork of literature--winner of the Icelandic Literature Prize and longlisted for France's Prix Medicis Étrangere--that ponders the beauty and mystery of life and our deepest existential questions. In small places, life becomes bigger. Sometimes distance from the world's tumult can open our hearts and our dreams. In a village of four hundred souls, the infinite light of an Icelandic summer makes its inhabitants want to e... continue