Jón Kalman Stefánsson

In a remote part of Iceland, a boy and his friend Barður join a boat to fish for cod. A winter storm surprises them out at sea and Barður, who has forgotten his waterproof as he was too absorbed in 'Paradise Lost', succumbs to the ferocious cold and dies. Appalled by the death and by the fishermen's callous ability to set about gutting the fatal catch, the boy leaves the village, intending to return the book to its owner. The extreme hardship and danger of the journey is of little consequence to him - he has already resolved to join his friend in death. But once in the town he immerses himself in the stories and lives of its inhabitants, and decides that he cannot be with his friend just yet. Set at the turn of the twentieth century, Heaven and Hell is a perfectly formed, vivid and timeless story, lyrical in style, and as intense a reading experience as the forces of the Icelandic landscape themselves. An outstandingly moving novel.

Heaven and Hell

Sometimes a distance from the noise of the world opens our hearts, our senses, our dreams. An intensity of feelings erupts from the life of a village of four hundred souls in the Icelandic countryside, where the infinite light of summer makes its inhabitants want to explore, and the eternal night of winter lights up the magic of the stars. It becomes a microcosm of the eternal conflict between human desire and destiny, between the limits of reality and the wings of the imagination.

The director who immerses himself in Latin and astronomy to the point of abandoning everything for the secrets of the universe, the greedy postman who reads every letter and then publicizes the villagers' private affairs, the lawyer who believes that the world is based on calculus, but then discovers that he cannot count the fish in the sea or his own tears.

With the enchantment of poetry, and full of humour and tenderness for human weaknesses, Stefánsson explores the question of why we live at all, and at the same time immerses us fully in the river of life.

Summer Light, and Then Comes the Night

Luce d'estate, ed è subito notte

Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017 Keflavik: a town that may be the darkest place in Iceland, surrounded by black lava fields, hemmed in by a sea that may not be fished, and site of the U.S. military base, whose influences shaped Icelandic culture from the '50s to the dawning of the new millennium. Ari - a writer and publisher - lands back in Keflavik from Copenhagen. His father is dying, and he is flooded by memories of his youth in the '70s and '80s, listening to Pink Floyd and the Beatles, raiding American supply lorries and discovering girls. And one girl he could never forget. Layered through Ari's story is that of his grandparents in a village on the eastern coast, a world away from modern Keflavik. For his grandfather Oddur, life at sea was a destiny; for Margrét its elemental power brings only loneliness and fear. Both the story of a singular family and an epic that sparkles with love, pain and lifelong desire - with all of human life - Fish have no Feet is a novel of profound beauty and wisdom by a major international writer. By the author of the acclaimed trilogy, Heaven and Hell, The Sorrow of Angels and The Heart of Man.

Fish Have No Feet

Crepitio di stelle

جنة وجحيم

حزن الملائكة

Paradiso e inferno

Storia di Ásta

Roman

Dein Fortsein ist Finsternis

Hjarta mannsins

After coming through the blizzard that almost cost them everything, Jens and the boy are far from home, in a fishing community at the edge of the world. Taken in by the village doctor, the boy once again has the sense of being brought back from the grave. But this is a strange place, with otherworldly inhabitants, including flame-haired Alfheidur, who makes him wonder whether it is possible to love two women at once; he had believed his heart was lost to Ragnheidur, the daughter of the wealthy merchant in the village to which he must now inexorably return. Set in the awe-inspiring wilderness of the extreme north, The Heart of Man is a profound exploration of life, love and desire, written with a sublime simplicity. In this conclusion to an audacious trilogy, Stefansson brings a poet's eye and a philosopher's insight to a tale worthy of the sagasmiths of old..

The heart of man

A spellbinding saga about the inhabitants and inheritors of one rural community, by one of Iceland's most beloved novelists. A man comes to awareness in a church in rural Iceland, not knowing why he's there or how he arrived. When a local woman offers to reunite him with her sister, he realizes he's lost not only his bearings, but his memory as well: he doesn't recall either sister, nor their mother, the woman buried beneath the stone. As their stories unfold, he's plunged into a history spanning centuries and lives: a city girl drawn to the fjords by the memory of a blue-eyed gaze; a pastor who writes to dead poets and falls in love with a stranger from afar; a woman who must abandon her son to save her family; a musician plagued by cosmic loneliness; and an alcoholic transfixed by the night sky. Faced with the violence of destiny and the effects of choices, made and avoided, that cascade between lives, each discovers the cost of happiness and must answer the difficult question of how to love and be loved. An incandescent romance about the misfortune of mortality and the strange salve of time, Your Absence is Darkness is a spellbinding story of death, desire, and the perfect agony of star-crossed love.

Your Absence Is Darkness

hvor går man hen hvis der ingen vej er ud af verden?

Historien om Asta

Harmur englanna

O Coração do Homem

Primeiro livro da trilogia de Jón Kalman Stefánsson, um dos maiores escritores contemporâneos da Islândia. Numa parte remota da Islândia do século XIX, um pequeno barco de pesca é apanhado no meio de um violento temporal e a tragédia abate-se sobre os homens. Entre os tripulantes, um jovem pescador fica surpreso pela aparente indiferença dos companheiros à morte por hipotermia do seu único amigo. Desiludido e confuso ao retornar, ele decide abandonar sua aldeia, arriscando atravessar a pé as montanhas em pleno inverno, com uma ideia fixa: chegar à cidade mais próxima para devolver o livro Paraíso perdido, de John Milton, a um velho capitão cego, que o emprestara a seu amigo. Uma história vívida e lírica, com a intensidade da paisagem natural islandesa.

Paraíso e inferno

Iets ter grootte van het universum

Príbeh o Áste

« Certains mots sont probablement aptes à changer le monde, ils ont le pouvoir de nous consoler et de sécher nos larmes. Certains mots sont des balles de fusil, d’autres des notes de violon. Certains sont capables de faire fondre la glace qui nous enserre le coeur et il est même possible de les dépêcher comme des cohortes de sauveteurs quand les jours sont contraires ». Parfois à cause des mots, on meurt de froid. Comme pour Barour, pêcheur à la morue islandais, il y a un siècle. Trop occupé à retenir des vers du Paradis Perdu de Milton, il oublie sa vareuse en partant en mer. De retour sur la terre ferme, son meilleur ami entame un périlleux voyage pour rendre à son propriétaire le livre funeste. Pour savoir aussi s’il veut continuer à vivre. Entre ciel et terre, d’une force hypnotique, nous offre une de ces lectures trop rares dont on ne sort pas indemne. Une révélation...

Jón Kalman Stefánsson

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