SAGA SHOP - Haust I Fall 2019

16 Icelandair Stopover It has long been my theory that every writer, no matter genre or status, has at least one crime novel in them somewhere—though some might not dare set their beast free. Here, the author of 101 Reykjavík and A Woman at 1,000 Degrees takes on the hardboiled pulp genre and uses it for his own nefarious purposes. The result is a Tarantino-esque romp that is part Mickey Spillane and part John Kennedy Toole. The book follows the exploits of Tomislav “Toxic” Bokšic, a cocksure hitman for the Croatian mafia who needs to go into hiding after a botched hit. Through a series of unfortunate events, he ends up in Iceland, hiding under the identity of an American minister in a country where murder is a rarity and gunmen have little to do but tend to their domestic chores. Though Toxic initially struggles to contain his violent tendencies, he is soon adapting to his new homeland and making strides to better himself. All the while, his hell-for-leather narrative voice gives the reader an outsider’s perspective like no other of the mundane realities and absurdities of modern Icelandic society. RAINY DAY READS Now that fall has arrived, it’s time to bid farewell to summer and nestle up indoors with a good book. Björn Halldórsson has a few choice titles to keep the autumn blues away. Check out which audio books are available on page 96 and on our in-flight entertainment system. AND THE WIND SEES ALL By Guðmundur Andri Thorsson THE CASKET OF TIME By Andri Snær Magnason A FIST OR A HEART By Kristín Eiríksdóttir THE HITMAN’S GUIDE TO HOUSECLEANING By Hallgrímur Helgason In the style of Life: A User’s Manual and Mrs. Dalloway , the timespan of this slim novel is a mere two minutes, yet the text captures the inner lives of a whole village. In a series of vignettes, the reader flits between the conscious- nesses of the inhabitants of a small Icelandic fishing village. Fittingly, the thread that weaves together these disparate souls is Kata, the conductor of the town choir, capable of harmonizing the villagers’ voices into a single being. During the time it takes her to cycle through town, various villagers mark her passing while going through the motions of their daily lives. As their thoughts drift into the realms of the past, their memories linger on former selves and the hopes and dreams that slipped through their fingers. A technical marvel of empathy, the text shifts its language and cadence to suit each villager. In doing so, it reflects their contrasting visions of each other and their stories, moving delicately between the warm embraces of nostalgia and the secret shame of old wounds and hidden traumas. More fairytale than fantasy, The Casket of Time presents us with a familiar world, where people harangue them- selves with worry about “the situation” while doing naught to amend it. Meanwhile, their children are left to ponder the mess their parents have made of the planet. When a mysterious company starts selling caskets that you can use to wait out the bad times (“No more Mondays! No more February!”), their TimeBoxes™ are a huge success. A long time later, the children begin to awake in their tombs, only to discover that nature has reclaimed the planet while they slumbered. In this wild, post-apocalyptic landscape, they form a colony under the guidance of a mysterious old woman, who tells them the story of Obsidiana, the Princess of Pangea, and her mad father, King Dimon, who wanted to protect his daughter from heartache by hiding her from time itself. A story within a story, The Casket of Time is a satire of the present moment that applies a light, humorous touch to avoid the pitfalls of proselytizing or condescending to its readers. Elín, a reclusive woman in her 70s, whittles away her remaining years designing theater props and body-parts for Scandi-noir TV shows. Through her work, she meets Ellen, a playwright barely out of her teens whose first play is headed for the stage. Though the two have little actual contact, she is smitten with the girl, who is weighed down by her supposed potential, thrust upon her by the legacy of her father, an infamous enfant terrible of Icelandic literature. Perturbed by this unfamiliar mothering instinct, the older woman begins to spy on Ellen and her wreck of a mother, documenting their story because “no one else is going to do it.” In doing so, she begins to unravel the threads that interweave her own story with theirs, bringing up a past that she had happily consigned to oblivion. She also knows that time is of the essence, as she can feel her foothold in the world giving way. This translation marks the first appearance of Kristín Eiríksdóttir’s work in English, which in and of itself is a great crime against the Anglophone reader. AUDIO BOOK