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Recommended books (20)
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.

1.
ADN

ADN by Yrsa Sigurđadóttir FR

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Genre
Recommended: 25 Jan 2023

2.

And the Wind Sees All (Valeyrarvalsinn) by Gudmundur Andri Thorsson EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Description:
"Relaxing in Nordic Hygge in a novel; the entire story takes place in two minutes. In this story we hear the voices of an Icelandic fishing village. On a summer's day a young woman in a polka-dot dress cycles down the main street. Her name is Kata and she is the conductor of the village choir. As she passes, we get a glimpse of the villagers: a priest with a gambling habit, an old brother and sister who have not talked for years, and a sea captain who has lost his son. But perhaps the most interesting story of all belongs to the young woman on the bicycle. Why is she reticent to talk about her... continue
Genre
Recommended: 22 Sep 2018

3.
Animal Life

Animal Life by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir EN

Rating: 4     1 Vote
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Description:
From winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize and the Icelandic Literature Prize, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, comes a dazzling novel about a family of midwives set in the run-up to Christmas in Iceland In the days leading up to Christmas, Dómhildur delivers her 1,922nd baby. Beginnings and endings are her family trade; she comes from a long line of midwives on her mother's side and a long line of undertakers on her father's. She even lives in the apartment that she inherited from her grandaunt, a midwife with a unique reputation for her unconventional methods. As a terrible storm races towards... continue
Genre
Recommended: 31 Oct 2022

4.
Arctic Chill

Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indriðason EN

Rating: 3.5     33 Votes
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Description:
On a January day the Reykjavik police are called to a block of flats where a body has been found: a young boy frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The discovery of a stab wound on his stomach extinguishes any hope that this was an accident. Erlendur & his team embark on their investigation with little to go on.
Recommended: 23 Jan 2023

5.

Burial Rites : A Novel by Hannah Kent EN

Rating: 4     1 Vote
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Description:
Based on a true story, tells the tale of a young woman in Iceland in 1829 who was accused of murder and sent to an isolated farm to await execution and tells the farmer's family her side of the story.
Genre
Recommended: 25 May 2022

6.

Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir EN

Rating: 4     2 Votes
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Description:
A hilarious and moving road trip around Iceland in an old car, told by a recently divorced woman with a five year-old boy 'on loan' After a day of being dumped - twice - and accidentally killing a goose, the narrator begins to dream of tropical holidays far away from the chaos of her current life. instead, she finds her plans wrecked by her best friend's deaf-mute son, thrust into her reluctant care. But when a shared lottery ticket nets the two of them over 40 million kroner, she and the boy head off on a road trip across iceland, taking in cucumber-farming hotels, dead sheep, and any number ... continue
Genre
Recommended: 28 Jan 2018

7.

Drápa by Gerður Kristný EN

Rating: 3     1 Vote
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Description:
Celebrated Icelandic writer Gerður Kristný's Drápa is a novel-poem which takes its form from Old Norse shield poetry and its mood from modern Nordic crime. But the poem is no fiction: it is about a real woman's murder in the city of Reykjavik, and, through this lens, about all women's deaths. This is Viking poetry at its most contemporary.
Genre
Recommended: 11 Sep 2022

8.
Gallows Rock

Gallows Rock by Yrsa Sigurdardottir EN

Rating: 3     1 Vote
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Description:
On a jagged, bleak lava field just outside Reykjavik stands the Gallows Rock. Once a place of execution, it is now a tourist attraction. Until this morning, when a man was found hanging from it... The nail embedded in his chest proves it wasn't suicide. But when the police go to his flat, a further puzzle awaits: a four-year-old boy has been left there. He doesn't seem to have any link with the victim, his parents cannot be found, and his drawings show he witnessed something terrible. As detective Huldar hunts the killer, and child psychologist Freyja looks for the boy's parents, the mystery u... continue
Recommended: 11 Feb 2023

9.
Icelandic folk tales

Icelandic folk tales by Hjörleifur Helgi Stefánsson EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Genre
Recommended: 27 Apr 2023

10.

Independent People by Halldór Laxness EN

Rating: 3     3 Votes
Country: Europe / Iceland flag Iceland
Description:
The great Icelandic novel by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Halldór Laxness 'There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life' New York Review of Books First published in 1946, this is a humane, epic novel set in rural Iceland. Bjartus is a sheep farmer determined to eke a living from a blighted patch of land. Nothing, not merciless weather, nor his family, will come between him and his goal of financial independence. Only Asta Solillja, the child he brings up as his daughter, can pierce his stubborn heart. As sh... continue
Recommended: 06 Mar 2022


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