Books from Iceland
86 popular icelandic books
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.
61.
Silence of the Grave : An Inspector Erlendur Novel by Arnaldur Indridason EN
Description:
“Now Iceland has its own Mankell.” ---Holger Kreitling, Die Welt (Germany) Last year Jar City introduced international crime-writing sensation Arnaldur Indridason to rave reviews and a rousing welcome from American thriller fans. And now, Silence of the Grave, the next in this stunning series has won the coveted Golden Dagger Award. Presented by the British Crime Writers' Association, previous winners of this award include John Le Carre, Minette Walters, Henning Mankell, and James Lee Burke. In Silence of the Grave, a corpse is found on a hill outside the city of Reykjavík, and Detective Inspe... continue
64.
Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson EN
Description:
Taut and terrifying, a startling debut from an extraordinary new talent, taking Nordic Noir to soaring new heights Siglufjorour: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors, and which is accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thor Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik, with a past that he s unable to leave behind. When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theater, Ari is dragged str... continue
65.
Summer Light, and Then Comes the Night : A Novel by Jon Kalman Stefansson EN
Description:
From the "Icelandic Dickens (Irish Examiner)," a writer who "shares the elemental grandeur of Cormac McCarthy" (Times Literary Supplement), comes this profound and playful masterwork of literature--winner of the Icelandic Literature Prize and longlisted for France's Prix Medicis Étrangere--that ponders the beauty and mystery of life and our deepest existential questions. In small places, life becomes bigger. Sometimes distance from the world's tumult can open our hearts and our dreams. In a village of four hundred souls, the infinite light of an Icelandic summer makes its inhabitants want to e... continue
66.
Swanfolk by Kristín Ómarsdóttir EN
Description:
'Magical and disturbing' Adam Thirlwell An astonishing, mind-bending novel about a woman discovering a community of swan-people from one of Iceland's greatest writers. *SHORTLISTED FOR THE ICELANDIC WOMEN'S LITERATURE PRIZE* In the not-too-distant future, a young spy named Elisabet Eva is about to discover something that will upend her life. Elisabet likes to take long solitary walks near the lake. One day, she sees two creatures emerging from the water, half-human, half-swan. She follows them through tangles of thickets into a strange new reality. Pulled into the monomaniacal, and often viole... continue
68.
The Blue Fox : A Novel by Sjón EN
Description:
Set against the stark backdrop of the Icelandic winter landscape, the mysterious blue fox is an elusive, enigmatic target for hunters like Baldur, a 19th-century priest who has profound influence over his rural community and is now seeking to extend his dominion.
69.
The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir EN
Description:
When La's car gets a puncture out in the countryside, the man who lives nearest proves recalcitrantly helpful. She ends up falling asleep in his armchair and wakes to intense guilt at neglecting her daughter back in Reykjavik, followed by shock at what she finds in her helper's back room - half-finished, life-size silicone women hanging from hooks. Sveinn, her host, is a craftsman; he makes sex dolls. In his workshop La is overcome with a surprising reverence, and acting on a mad notion of salvation, she steals one of the dolls for her troubled daughter Margret. For the first time ever, La fin... continue
70.
The Darkness : If you like Saga Noren from The Bridge, then you'll love Hulda Hermannsdottir by Ragnar Jónasson EN
Description:
FEATURED IN THE TIMES TOP 100 CRIME NOVELS SINCE 1945 SOON TO BE A MAJOR TV SERIES 'An intelligent, provocative whodunit with a killer twist' IAN RANKIN ____________ A body is found off the coast of Iceland. A cursory police investigation calls it suicide. She's just another statistic, soon forgotten. But not by Reykjavik Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir. Difficult and unconventional, Hulda is being forced into early retirement. Offered one last cold case to investigate she chooses Elena's. And when she discovers another woman vanished at a similar time, she believes a killer roams fre... continue