This anthology includes stories written by the authors from eight Nordic lands: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, the Åland Islands and Iceland. Authors are born 61 years apart: Kjell Askildsen (Norway) was born in 1929 and Niviaq Korneliussen (Greenland) in 1990.
To be honest I haven’t read something so classy and disturbing for ages. While reading this book I got the impression that almost all the stories, irrespective of the specific storyline, deal more or less with dark themes. Melancholy and morbidity would probably be appropriate keywords to characterize this book. Some of the stories include elements of horror, fantasy, folklore, mysticism and black humour. But in some stories one can also find a totally realistic representation of everyday life.
Melancholic and weird enough, this book isn’t an easy reading. I’m not sure, if reading it twice would help to catch better all the layers and nuances of the Northern storytelling.
This anthology has been compiled stylishly. In form and content. It reflects Northern ways of seeing life. An icy touch, if you like.
Authors: Naja Marie Aidt (Denmark), Per Olov Enquist (Sweden), Dorthe Nors (Denmark), Linda Bostroem Knausgard (Sweden), Madame Nielsen (Denmark), Rosa Liksom (Finland), Johan Bargum (Finland), Kristin Omarsdottir (Iceland), Kjell Askildsen (Norway), Ulla-Lena Lundberg (Finland/Sweden), Hassan Blasim (Finland), Sorine Steenholdt (Greenland, Gudbergur Bergsson (Iceland), Solrun Michelsen (Faroe Islands), Frode Grytten (Norway), Carl Johan Jensen (Faroe Islands), Niviaq Korneliussen (Greenland)
Pushkin Press, 2017
Check from the OverDrive digital library
Kadi Eslon
Department of Literature in Foreign Languages