Kristjana Gunnars

Night Train to Nykøbing

Kazim Ali reintroduces five autofiction novellas by feminist Icelandic writer and artist Kristjana Gunnars--for fans of The Baudelaire Fractal Between 1989 and 1996, Kristjana Gunnars published five linked novellas, all in the same fragmentary style, all helmed by the same narrator. They were autofictional before such a term existed; they presaged the work of writers like Rachel Cusk, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Ben Lerner, and Sheila Heti. From a childhood in Cold War Iceland to love affairs and deaths, these short works document a life of perpetual motion, told a discontinuous, subversive style to reflect the singular, feminist, nomadic life of the narrator. It is a life of thought, an ongoing engagement with writers from Proust to Kierkegaard and Kristeva, finding a companionship in the written texts of others that allows the narrator to leave questions unanswered, to follow the course of love. The Scent of Light brings these five novellas together for the first time, contextualized by an insightful and informative introduction by acclaimed poet Kazim Ali.

Five Novellas

The Scent of Light

Mavis Gallant has been a leading literary figure in Canada since her first short story, published in 1951, and has grown to be considered internationally as a modern master of the genre. Her writing is nuanced, sensitive, gifted, deep and concise. She leaves everything open for the hidden potential that can always be discovered. Times change; society, history, politics may develop out of recognition. Cultures metamorphose. Literary landscapes and theories are renewed. But the classics of our time stay where they are, pillars of that which is solidly about us. Mavis Gallant's work is of that calibre: her writing will remain interesting and relevant no matter what else happens. This book is an exploration of what Gallant's readers are thinking now: where they place her in the panorama of literature and what meaning she has for them now. Scholars continue to probe into the stories, their characters, the capsules of history they present, and continue to find them challenging. As with Shakespeare, no amount of scrutiny will yield the final answer. That is how complex Gallant's writing is. Especially now, when the positioning of her characters is a more prominent condition in general, we need to review Gallant's artistic insights. As Francine Prose says in Harper's Magazine: Gallant's cast of characters are a "motley assortment of refugees, fugitives, and travelers" and "displaced persons scrambling on the margins of a society they will never belong to." This is the modern condition. As with other great writers, Gallant shows herself to be prophetic in cutting down to the roots of the sensibility of our era. We are reading her work, and we are thinking about it and talking about it. This book is part of that large conversation. Contributors are: Neil Besner, Di Brandt, Nicole Côté, John Lent, Gerald Lynch, Maria Noëlle Ng, Peter Stevens, Simone Vauthier, Per Winther.

New Essays on Mavis Gallant

Transient Questions

At the beginning of a new writing project—whether it’s the first page of a new novel or a less ambitious project, writers often experience exhilaration, fear, or dread. For Kristjana Gunnars, the call of a new project is “like someone you don’t know knocking on your door—you either choose to let the person in or not. It’s both exciting and dangerous to start a new manuscript.” This book is an engagement with that “stranger” called writing. Creative or imaginative writing is a complex process that involves more than intellect alone. Writers make use of everything: their sensibilities, history, culture, knowledge, experience, education, and even their biology. These essays seek out, and gather into a discussion, what writers have said about their own experiences in writing. Although the writers are from around the world and of very different backgrounds, the commonality of their remarks brings home the realization that writers everywhere are grappling with similar problems—with the seemingly simple problems of when, where, why, and what to write, but also larger questions such as the relationship between writer and society, or issues of privacy, appropriation, or homelessness. While none of these questions can be definitively answered, they can be fruitfully discussed. Originating as questions posed in creative-writing seminars, these essays have grown into companion texts for both writers and readers who want to participate in a conversation about what writers do.

Writers and the Act of Writing

Stranger at the Door

These nine short stories are written by well-known authors such as W.D. Valgardson, Martha Brooks, David Arnason, Kristjana Gunnars and Betty Jane Wylie. The collection showcases the work of the prairie Icelandic community and is wide-ranging, contemporary, and highly entertaining. The fictions are sometimes comic and sometimes melancholy, in the best tradition of a "round of storytelling." Gunnars' introduction raises questions about the function of fiction and the issues of ethnic writing.

New Icelandic Canadian Writing

Unexpected Fictions

Combining the genres of fiction, memoir, the familiar essay and theoretical speculation, The Rose Garden forms an unusual synthesis. The protagonist and narrator is a Canadian literary scholar on study leave in Germany. While there, her involvement with her books on the one hand and a love relationship on the other creates a surprising blend of life and fiction. Her readings in classical European texts forefront the question of a woman reader's response. Her involvement with her lover makes her wonder why there is so little difference between life and literature on the level of experience. This is an uncommon book that defies traditional rules of style and genre and provokes the question of what meaning literary works actually have in our lives.

Reading Marcel Proust

The Rose Garden

In the tradition of Marguerite Duras, Gunnars explores a multi-layered romance-between East and West, rural and urban, silence and words.

The Substance of Forgetting

A powerful postmodern novel combining the elements of a psychological thriller with the history of a people trapped by landscape and politics. A poetically charged text prowls the isolation and heartbreak of a girl growing up in Iceland in the post-war years, and her later experiences as an immigrant in North America. What emerges is a widening mystery of origins in which every word becomes a clue to the unspoken.

A Novel

The Prowler

Kazim Ali introduces five autofiction novellas by Kristjana Gunnars—available in the U.S. for the first time, in a single, handsome volume Between the late eighties and late nineties, Kristjana Gunnars published five transgeneric novels comprised of a scintillating blend of fiction, autobiography, literary theory, and philosophy. Elusive and poetic… rigorous yet passionate...these books were treasured by a devoted readership and have been lauded by critics throughout the years since. — Kazim Ali, from the introduction From a childhood in Cold War Iceland to love affairs and deaths, these short works document a life of perpetual motion, told a discontinuous, subversive style to reflect the singular, feminist, nomadic life of the narrator. It is a life of thought, an ongoing engagement with writers from Proust to Kierkegaard to Kristeva, seeking and often finding a companionship in the writing of others. These five spellbinding narratives act as a bending bow, open to what life has to offer day by day and taking the gentler course, wherein nothing is forced and life’s big questions remain beautifully unanswered. The Prowler is a reminiscence of childhood spent in Iceland, seen from a distance with the Cold War as a backdrop, just before the hyper-modernization of the mid-sixties, when the air of the past was still discernible. When an orange was a delicacy against the darkness. This is Gunnars’ most lauded novella. Zero Hour is a contemplation and remembrance of the narrator’s father and his death. The narrative traces the course of the father’s illness and final moments, and confronts the reality and grief of absolute endings. The Substance of Forgetting is ultimately about happiness. Set in a lush valley in central B.C., the narrator begins to awaken to possibilities of love and transcendence. The Rose Garden is set in Germany and the narrator is on an academic exchange wherein all that happens are things that are not supposed to happen. Night Train to Nykøbing is a darker exploration of life’s (and love’s) unknowns and the dangers inherent in choices we make. The narrator is travelling between Vancouver and Oslo in a continuous back and forth that gives rise to a sense of the liminality of life itself. "The intimacy, grace, and intelligence of these narratives is remarkable. The mystery and quietude honours the beauty of the everyday as it passes, while simultaneously gesturing to vast other worlds. Often I was taken by its openings and distances, and a marvellous, almost translucent quality that permeates the texts. Oddly, at times it felt as if I were inside a whispering many-chambered shell – resonant, enclosed, pearlescent – the pleasure afforded, enormous." –Carole Maso, author of Ghost Dance "From 1989 to 1998, the Icelandic-Canadian writer Kristjana Gunnars published five novellas, each detailing specific moments in the writer’s life. Gathered here for the first time, they offer a significant new strand of thinking about the rise of autofiction and the history of innovative women’s writing in Canada. If you loved discovering Annie Ernaux, you’ll love discovering Kristjana Gunnars." –Sina Queyras, author of Lemon Hound

Night Train to Nykobing

A woman hopelessly in love boards the night train to Nykobing, Denmark, not knowing if the lover she leaves on the station platform will ever be with her again. Night Train to Nykobing is a transformative tale that articulates the dense codes of love, the passion of waiting, and the terrifying intensity of a life on the edge of abandonment. But it also is a story of return to a country, to a culture, to a language, and finally to a heart that has wandered through the desert of time. As ever, Kristjana Gunnars writes a textured palimpsest of pain and joy, of feeling and knowing entwined with the desperations of everyday life.

"In this superbly crafted series of short stories Kristjana Gunnars explores the wellsprings of emotion and the isolation of individuals as they try to come to grips with their lives. Her characters are ordinary, but their perspectives are unique: several portray the isolation and loneliness felt by women trapped in roles and situations over which they seem to have no control."

Kristjana Gunnars

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