Icelandic Fiction

Brought to you by Penguin. Four friends. One night. Not everyone will come out alive . . . The gripping stand-alone mystery from 'world-class crime writer' Ragnar Jónasson In a deadly Icelandic snowstorm, four friends seek shelter in an abandoned hunting lodge. Miles from help, and knowing they...

In this book, author Alda Sigmundsdóttir presents 20 translated elf stories from Icelandic folklore, along with fascinating notes on the context from which they sprung. The international media has had a particular infatuation with the Icelanders’ elf belief, generally using it to propagate some kind of “kooky Icelanders” myth. Yet Iceland’s elf folklore, at its core, reflects the plight of a nation living in abject poverty on the edge of the inhabitable world, and its people’s heroic efforts to survive, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

After more than 20 years away, Alda Sigmundsdottir returned to her native Iceland as a foreigner. With a native person's insight yet an outsider's perspective, Alda quickly set about dissecting the national psyche of the Icelanders. This second edition, from 2018, contains new and updated chapters from the original edition, reflecting the changes in Icelandic society and among the Icelandic people since the book was first published in 2012.

The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a modern English translation that would do them justice. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!) and well worth the wait. These amazing texts from a 13th-century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological, and literary importance, containing the lion's share of information that survives today about the gods and heroes of pre-Christian Scandinavians, their unique vision of the beginning and end of the world, etc.  

Detective H. Grímsson is intelligent, hard as nails, and very resourceful. But he's also his own worst enemy. After an unfortunate shooting incident in Iceland's largest shopping mall on Christmas Eve, he's demoted to a police deputy in a small rural village in eastern Iceland. Grímsson's plan is to kick back, drink some beer, and enjoy this time away from home. When two young female hitchhikers disappear, Grímsson fears that the girls are lost in the highlands or have drowned in the glacial river. But then one of the girls wanders naked into the village and dies in Grimsson's arms.

On a snowy winter morning, an abandoned shipping container is discovered near Reykjavík. Inside are the bodies of five young women - one of them barely alive. As Icelandic Police detective Daníel struggles to investigate the most brutal crime of his career, Áróra looks into the background of a suspicious man, who turns out to be engaged to Daníel's former wife, and the connections don't stop there.

Iceland, the land of fire and ice, has a storied history. After the Norse discovered Iceland, they began to settle it, allying the island nation with Norway. However, as power shifted in Scandinavia, Iceland would come to be governed by Denmark for several centuries.

Icelandic sisters Áróra and Ísafold live in different countries and aren‘t on speaking terms, but when their mother loses contact with Ísafold, Áróra reluctantly returns to Iceland to find her sister. But she soon realises that her sister isn’t avoiding her...she has disappeared. As she confronts Ísafold’s abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend Björn, and begins to probe her sister’s reclusive neighbours, Áróra is led into an ever-darker web of intrigue and manipulation.

Brought to you by Penguin. What happened to Lara? Iceland, 1956. Fifteen-year-old Lára spends the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, the girl disappears without a trace. The mystery becomes Iceland's greatest unsolved...

Fall asleep fast a with Icelandic Fairy Tales: Soothing Bedtime Stories for Adults, an enchanting audiobook that will transport you to a serene world and effortlessly lull you into a restful slumber. This audiobook is designed to create the perfect ambiance for a restorative sleep experience.

Brought to you by Penguin. One winter evening bestselling crime author, Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing. There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective, Helgi, to crack the case before it's leaked to the press. As he interviews the people closest to her – a...

A boy, his grandfather, and a baby dragon set off on an international adventure that takes them from the Midwest to Iceland in this children's fantasy novel perfect for fans of When You Trap a Tiger and How To Train Your Dragon. Johan is off to visit his Grandpa Siggy—a charismatic, impetuous...

It was meant to be a quiet family fishing trip, a chance for mother and daughter to talk. But it changes the course of their lives forever. They catch nothing except a broken doll that gets tangled in the net. After years in the ocean, the doll a terrifying sight and the mother's first instinct is to throw it back, but she relents when her daughter pleads to keep it. This simple act of kindness proves fatal. That evening, the mother posts a picture of the doll on social media. By the morning, she is dead and the doll has disappeared.

FÖR Á ÓKUNNAR SLÓÐIR. Þau voru send frá Englandi með fangaskipum. Þjófar, glæpamenn og morðingjar - sum ranglega ákærð, önnur réttilega. Það féll í þeirra hlut að breyta óbyggðum Ástralíu í byggilegt land. Þeim var troðið niður í daunillar lestir skipa Hans hátignar og siglt með þau yfir hættuleg höf allt frá ískaldri auðn Suðurskautslandsins, að Suðurhöfða, Tasmaníu og að skipalægi Cooks á Botany Bay. Örlaganornirnar voru grimmar og illar við Jenny Taggart, sem var aðeins fimmtán ára gömul, þegar hún var ranglega kærð fyrir þjófnað.

Brought to you by Penguin. The final nail-biting instalment in the critically acclaimed Hidden Iceland series - FROM THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR 'A world-class crime writer . . . One of the most astonishing plots of modern crime fiction' Sunday Times 'It is nothing less than a landmark...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Island by Ragnar Jónasson, read by Amanda Redman. Four friends visit the island. But only three return . . . Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is sent to the isolated island of Elliðaey to investigate and soon finds haunting similarities...

The Icelandic nation has a long and rich history of storytelling. Throughout centuries characterized by hardship, poverty, and dark winters, the Icelanders kept their spirits high and moral values intact by telling each other stories. In this collection of 15 Icelandic folk legends, we get a glimpse of the world view of the Icelanders in centuries past as they endeavored to understand and cope with the natural phenomena around them. There are stories of malicious ghosts, outlaws living in carved-out boulders, hidden people residing in grassy knolls...

'A tsunami of a thriller' - Amazon reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Another great read from Quentin Bates. For the second time in the series I found myself rooting for the 'bad guy'!' - Amazon reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ --------------- Reykjavík detective Gunnhildur 'Gunna' Gísladóttir does not...

With over three million copies sold worldwide, Ragnar Jónasson, along with Katrín Jakobsdóttir, brings us a gripping and chilling new thriller, Reykjavík. What happened to Lára? Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lára decides to spend the summer working for a couple on the small island of...

Rachel Richards' life in London has lost its sparkle. Her boyfriend Adam is more interested in his job than in her, and her dreams of adventure have faded into a monotonous routine. When her company, Snug, offers her the chance to oversee a new store opening in Iceland, Rachel seizes the opportunity for escape.