The World's Literature in Europe discussion

Month: Title, Discussion Leader, Note

JANUARY: Iceland's Bell, Asma

FEBRUARY: The Fish Can Sing, Maggie

MARCH: Reply to a Letter from Helga, Jenny C.

APRIL: Children in Reindeer Woods, Tara

SPRINGTIME READ in the Americas's region: Walking Into The Night, Lucinda

MAY: Grettir's Saga, Bredo

JUNE-JULY: The Sagas of Icelanders, Marieke, paperback Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition or ebook World of the Sagas edition with preface by Jane Smiley.

"...the Icelandic sagas...written down primarily in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries...concerned with specific families or individuals that lived during the "Saga Age" in Iceland, the period between the settlement of Iceland (870-930) and the middle of the eleventh century (when the church began to reshape Icelandic society and culture)."--text note in Iceland's Bell

The Icelandic Sagas: Europe's most important book?

JULY: Burial Rites

SUMMERTIME SHORT-STORY COLLECTION: Stone Tree

AUGUST: Icelanders in the Viking Age: The People of the Sagas, Asma, http://www.williamrshort.com/icelande...

SEPTEMBER: Heaven and Hell, Lucinda

September 18: Too good to miss: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

OCTOBER: The Blue Fox, Maggie

AUTUMN READ in the Americas's region: The Faraway Nearby

NOVEMBER: Independent People, Don

DECEMBER: From the Mouth of the Whale

December 8: The Strange Library, the new short story by Murakami

FINALE: The ghostly short story "The Waif Woman" by Robert Louis Stevenson, adapted from the Thorgunna chapters (50-51) of Eyrbyggja Saga.

My local newspaper asks local bookstores for recommendations for reading. One of the recommendations for today was "The Blue Fox" by Sjon, as follows:

Seth Marco, trade book buyer, UC San Diego Bookstore

Recommends: The Blue Fox by Sjon

Why: To my mind, if I find myself drawn back to a book multiple times, there's something special happening with its pages. "The Blue Fox" is a slim novella by Icelandic poet, songwriter, friend to Bjork, and celebrated novelist Sjon, that I first read last summer and reread just a few weeks ago. It has proved to be one of those rare books that not only demand rereading, but that offer something different to the reader each time in exchange. There's a lyrical, dreamy cadence to Sjon's prose that somehow eases the mind and relaxes the soul. The book itself echoes of folk tale or an Icelandic myth, with an oral historian's economy of phrase to it. The plot seems innocuous enough: when a mentally handicapped woman dies, her caretaker and father figure arranges for her burial. The priest who presides over the burial then goes on a fox hunt. Maybe what you might imagine for a work of Icelandic fiction, right? But all is not as it first appears with these gentle folk of the icy north, and there's far more going on beneath the snows than we are first led to believe.

Sjon doesn't just hand over this neat, linear story and fade back over the misty tundra. The timeline is minced and chopped, presented in sections at the whim of its creator, offering just enough to engage, while keeping the plot core wonderfully opaque until the very last page. Its magical, ethereal, erudite, and heartbreaking -- certainly worth revisiting again and again and again.


I've been very drawn to that book since it was recommended to me by Amazon. I'll take the lead in discussing it in October, if that slot is still open.

Maggie wrote: "My local newspaper asks local bookstores for recommendations for reading. One of the recommendations for today was "The Blue Fox" by Sjon..."

Maggie, I am very enthusiastic about your recommendation of The Blue Fox and am interested to find out about the maybe part-real part-fictitious fox & about the author of the story/fable as Sjon has interview/s on the author website < http://sjon.siberia.is/ >. Glad you are leading the discussion in October :)

Nicola W wrote: "I wasn't sure where to post this but I stumbled across this interview today http://www.cbc.ca/writersandcompany/m..."

Wow, Nicola. Very, very interesting! Breathless listening to every word about Sjón's life and his books.

Hi! Not sure where to post this, but there is an interesting book that some might want to add to their Iceland reading lists
Unraveled: a Novel about a Meltdown by Alda Sigmundsdóttir. It is novel about the Icelandic Financial crisis of 2008.

Lucinda wrote: "Hi! Not sure where to post this, but there is an interesting book that some might want to add to their Iceland reading lists
Unraveled: a Novel about a Meltdown by [author:Alda S..."

The novel sounds interesting, i.e., with the parallel between the main character's marriage and the national economic meltdown! Let me know if you want to lead a discussion about it during this year. Thank you.

Oh we can ask to lead a discussion on a book of our choice? Goody.
Unraveled is an interesting one, but on the other hand Jón Kalman Stefánsson's Heaven and Hell sounds like a great read.

Nicola W wrote: "Also, related to our reading and discussion of The Icelandic Sagas is this podcast from the BBC's long- running series "In Our Time"... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s8qx9 "

Very enlightening listening program about all sorts of topics related to Iceland's settlement, the golden age of saga writing, the language, the society in the viking age, etc :-)

Lucinda wrote: "Oh we can ask to lead a discussion on a book of our choice? Goody.
Unraveled is an interesting one, but on the other hand Jón Kalman Stefánsson's Heaven and Hell sounds like a gr..."

✓ Stefánsson's Heaven and Hell sounds best. And, there are some openings in the year's reading.

Asma wrote: "Lucinda wrote: "Oh we can ask to lead a discussion on a book of our choice? Goody.
Unraveled is an interesting one, but on the other hand Jón Kalman Stefánsson's Heaven and Hell ..."

Great! I will lead a discussion on Heaven and Hell if that works :)
I am not bothered as to when.

Lucinda wrote: "Jón Kalman Stefánsson's Heaven and Hell ..."

Great! I will lead a discussion on Heaven and Hell if that works :)..."

I'm looking forward to reading and talking about this novel. Stefánsson's the author of novels, short stories, and poetry and is the recipient of the Icelandic Literature Prize.

If someone would lead a book discussion from springtime onwards, then he/she would find several excellent readings from which to choose :)

well, out of pure coincidence I just got Walking Into the Night from the library, so I can lead that discussion. I would start that in a week or so, though...

Oh, goody, Lucinda. I just ordered it from the library so should be able to read along with you.

Still trying to catch up on getting some of the books. Grettir's Saga, I have read many times, etc. It's the newer ones! I wasn't aware of this group until very recently, darn it! So, if I can help, I would love to do so. Let me look at the schedule. Judy

To add, I have Reindeer, so I will definitely be in on that. The library here isn't so good, so I am having to buy these and it takes way too long here to get them, but Reindeer I will be in on, for sure.

I, too, have Reindeer and will be part of the discussion.

Lucinda wrote: "well, out of pure coincidence I just got Walking Into the Night from the library, so I can lead that discussion. I would start that in a week or so, though..."

Maggie wrote: "Oh, goody, Lucinda. I just ordered it from the library so should be able to read along with you."

I'm looking forward to joining you in the discussion of Walking into the Night. The main character emigrated to the Americas from Iceland, somewhat different from Bjarni in Reply... but both might be struggling with feelings about the past. On my bookshelf beside Walking Into the Night is The Young Icelander: The Story of an Immigrant in Nova Scotia and Manitoba , a fiction in which the main character comes from Iceland to live in coastal-central Canada. All this is reminiscent, metaphorically speaking, of the first Vikings, who stepped ashore in North America.

Icelandic for Springtime Reading (the season of spring) is vorið for the new topic heading of Walking in the Dark.

Judy wrote: "Still trying to catch up on getting some of the books. Grettir's Saga, I have read many times, etc. It's the newer ones! I wasn't aware of this group until very recently, darn it! So, if I can ..."

Judy wrote: "To add, I have Reindeer, so I will definitely be in on that. The library here isn't so good, so I am having to buy these and it takes way too long here to get them, but Reindeer I will be in on, f..."

Maggie wrote: "I, too, have Reindeer and will be part of the discussion."

I too have access to Children in Reindeer Woods, so the more the merrier, in this instance. And, I see that Tara readied the discussion topic for it.

Asma, once again the small book section in my daily newspaper has come up with a new book about Iceland. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. One of the lines says: "Hana Kent's debut novel, "Burial Rites," reimagines the doomed, final year of a real person, Agness Magnusdottir, the last person to be publicly beheaded in Iceland after she was convicted of murdering two men in 1828." Apparently the author is Australian, but spent a year in Iceland in high school and returns there frequently. She calls her book a "dark love letter to Iceland."

Thought I'd let everyone know so that if they're interested they can look for it.

I just read Burial Rites this weekend, very good!

Jenny, I had assumed the was just out, but see that it as released in August 2013, and it's in e-reader format. Now I'm intrigued.

Maggie wrote: "...a new book about Iceland. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent..."

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I just read Burial Rites this weekend, very good!"

Maggie and Jenny, the book you mention is part of this year's published schedule for the month of July :)

Great. Since you've read it, Jenny, would you be willing to lead our discussion? I can promise you I'll participate.

I can't as I may not have much Internet access this summer, spending it with my Mom.

That's too bad, but maybe you'll be able to occasionally comment during the read.

Burial Rites received high praise. The historical subject will inform about another place and time and will go further in its drawing out the characters' emotions to events and to each other. I wonder whether a message for the present time will arise from the story?

Asma wrote: "Burial Rites ...I wonder whether a message for the present time will arise from the story"

You know, I expected more of a message novel than I got.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "You know, I expected more of a message novel than I got."

Jenny, thank you for your answer to my question about Burial Rites. I will reflect further on it as I reach the ending.

I hope to join you for discussion on Burial Rights come July

Sheila wrote: "I hope to join you for discussion on Burial Rights come July"

I look forward to your participation, Sheila.

Maggie wrote: "My local newspaper asks local bookstores for recommendations for reading. One of the recommendations for today was "The Blue Fox" by Sjon, as follows:

Seth Marco, trade book buyer, UC San Diego..."

I am looking forward to re-reading The Blue Fox as well. I found it very difficult, but extremely well-written the first time around. I hope to come to some understanding of it the next time, and through the discussion.

Judy wrote: "I am looking forward to re-reading The Blue Fox as well. I found it very difficult, but extremely well-written the first time around..."

The setting of The Blue Fox in the nineteenth century will fill in our historical knowledge about Iceland. We began with the sagas and worked our way into the twentieth century.

Asma, there's a book about Icelandic detectives on Kindle today for $1.99 - Sun on Fire . Maybe a read for next year?

Maggie wrote: "...there's a book about Icelandic detectives...Sun on Fire by Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson. Maybe a read for next year?


Maggie, I read some of the preview. I must say it might be a page-turner! I'd go along with reading it next year.