New in Translation: Icelandic Literature in Translation: New and Noteworthy Titles for 2021

Abstract

Notebook 9 new in translation Icelandic Literature in Translation New and Noteworthy Titles for 2021 by Björn Halldórsson SINCE THE MILLENNIUM, the availability of English translations of Icelandic literature has grown exponentially. It is impossible to dismiss the effect of Nordic Noir in this development, as the increase in Icelandic authors available in English seems to directly correspond to the postmillennium rise of the Icelandic crime novel—which was considered a fringe element on the domestic literary scene before 2000. Around 2010, however, one can see a burgeoning overseas interest in Icelandic writers on the more eclectic end of the spectrum, sought out by smaller publishers focused on works in translations (e.g., Open Letter, Deep Vellum, and the “littlebig ” Amazon Crossing). Through these new avenues, Icelandic writers such as Bragi Ólafsson, Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Oddný Eir, and Ófeigur Sigurðsson have found their way into the hands of anglophone readers who respond to their work in part because it does not fit so snuggly into the genre-driven Western publishing world. Below you will find a handful of such titles to be published in 2021. Andri Snær Magnason On Time and Water (Tíminn og vatnið) Trans. Lytton Smith Open Letter Books / Serpent’s Tail SET TO BECOME the “big Icelandic read” on the international market in 2021, Andri Snær Magnason’s On Time and Water continues the legacy of his previous work: his essaycollection -turned-documentary Dreamland and his cli-fichildren ’s-book-turned-play The Story of the Blue Planet. On Time and Water draws its title from a poem by Steinn Steinarr, one of Iceland’s foremost twentieth-century modernist poets. In the book, Magnason tries to make the reader arrive at an understanding of the imminence of the threats that humankind faces in the era of climate change—an era we have already entered. Even so, he is acutely aware of the challenges of instilling new perspectives as well as the average person’s tendency to dig in their heels when asked to reconsider their way of life. To this end, he shows remarkable restraint, not swamping his readers in numbers or ominous comparisons but instead taking the time to try a variety of approaches—historical, fantastical, and personal—in the hope of getting them to reconsider their ideas of time and the future in terms of climate change. Sjón Red Milk (Korngult hár, grá augu) Trans. Victoria Cribb Sceptre / Farrar, Straus & Giroux WITH CONTROLLED LYRICISM, Sjón purports to use a mere 120 pages to render an entire lifetime—albeit one that is cut short. It would be wrong to call his subject, Gunnar Kampen , an antihero, but as the founder of a fledgling Nazi party in the recently urbanized Reykjavík of the postwar years, he is certainly a man set against society and his own time. In a series of glimpses and snapshots, we pass through his life as a child and a young man and are witness to his gradual drift toward national-socialism and the creeds of racial superiority . At one point, the book turns into an epistolary novel, as we read through Gunnar’s personal letters to his friends and family as well as such influential postwar Nazi figures as Madame Devi-Mukherji and Göran Assar Oredsson, the founder of the Swedish National Socialist Party. In these letters we can see the duality of Gunnar’s nature: a loving brother and son as well as a staunch advocate of an abhorrent political movement. His writings in the service of his cause are at times reminiscent of the sort of enthused manifestos and misinformation found in today’s alt-right message boards, where young men in search of purpose and validation are at risk of being lost forever. 6 WLT SUMMER 2021 Auður Jónsdóttir Quake (Stóri Skjálfti) Trans. Meg Matich Dottir Press READING QUAKE, by Auður Jónsd óttir, almost feels like sitting through an extended panic attack. The protagonist , a young mother, appears to the reader as the quintessential tabula rasa. Lacking name, purpose, and language, she suddenly returns to consciousness in the book’s...