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Iceland

The covers of the ten books featured in the gift guide
Your 2022 Holiday Gift Guide to Reading in Translation
By Isabella Corletto
Ten recent books in translation that the readers in your life are sure to enjoy this holiday season.
Quake
By Auður Jónsdóttir
Eyes gape at me over cups of coffee, forkfuls of delicate shrimp.
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
On the Periphery
By Larissa Kyzer
The scope of the topics explored in this issue is, therefore, necessarily broad without being comprehensive.
The Sea Gives Us Children
By Thórdís Helgadóttir
Karen says she’s seen it when the souls begin their perambulations.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
MultimediaMultilingual
April 2021 At Journeys End Iceland Life Jackets Feature
At Journey’s End
By Steinunn G. Helgadóttir
This last shift, the boats came in all night and we ran out of everything.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
Multimedia
It’s difficult to calculate the influence of the missus of the night
By Bergrún Anna Hallsteinsdóttir
it’s difficult to appraise the unseeable
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Multimedia
Blue Days
By Fríða Ísberg
That same month, she realizes that she’s never going to stop striving as long as she’s in Reykjavik.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
Sinkings
By Haukur Ingvarsson
the glacier is black / polar bears run on hot sand
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Multimedia
The Husband and His Brother
By Björn Halldórsson
When Böddi came back to Iceland a month later, he was engaged.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
MultimediaMultilingual
In Human-Made Society
By Eva Rún Snorradóttir
In order to get a visa, they had to explain to him how two women went about having sex.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
Magma
By Thora Hjórleifsdóttir
He gets irritated, even seems hurt, if I put on makeup, and he asks accusingly, “Who are you doing that for?”
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
MultimediaMultilingual
Climates: On Environment
By Susan Harris
Global warming manifests in obvious ways.
Farewell to the White Giants
By Andri Snær Magnason
Chaos is not confined to the glacier’s edge.
Translated from Icelandic by Lytton Smith
The Queer “I”: The Tenth Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
All the pieces are told in the first person, lending intimacy and immediacy to the events they describe.
Abel’s Autobiography
By Kári Tulinius
I had two choices: I could wrest back control of my life or I could die.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
MultimediaMultilingual
Evolution
By Magnús Sigurðsson
Let me / help you / said the ape.
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Black Sea
By Magnús Sigurðsson
The dark kaiser’s ship, / deep-keeled, cuts the water
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Austurvöllur on the Day of the Wake
By Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir
Bums roll around broken-legged in the grass.
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Another Letter to Mister Brown
By Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir
You are the main man, Mister Brown / I am just a victim of circumstance
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Fragments from the Guidebook of the Dead
By Gyrðir Elíasson
There will come a time when / the planet will have had enough
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Mountain Hike
By Gyrðir Elíasson
the blue planet swam in the half-twilight of evening
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Jerking Out of Rotation: Four Icelandic Poets
By Meg Matich
Given that its language is spoken by fewer than 350,000 people across the world, Iceland manages to publish an astonishing volume of poetry.
Bus Sequence
By Arngunnur Árnadóttir
Each shared bus ride was like a ritual
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
The moon is visible in the pink sky over a snowy mountain valley and frozen river
Photo by Daiwei Lu on Unsplash
solstice
By Sjón
The earth (like the heart) leans back in its seat
Translated from Icelandic by David McDuff