Independent People (Vintage Classics)

Arguably Iceland's greatest ever novel, Laxness' classic finds immersive, tragicomic drama in the practice of sheep farming, as a stubborn patriarch battles both the elements and his family in pursuit of financial independence.

The great Icelandic novel by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Halldór Laxness

First published in 1946, this is a humane, epic novel set in rural Iceland. Bjartus is a sheep farmer determined to eke a living from a blighted patch of land. Nothing, not merciless weather, nor his family, will come between him and his goal of financial independence. Only Asta Solillja, the child he brings up as his daughter, can pierce his stubborn heart. As she grows up, keen to make her own way in the world, Bjartus's obstinacy threatens to estrange them forever.

Written by the Nobel prize-winner dubbed the 'Tolstoy of the North', this is a magnificent portrait of the eerie Icelandic landscape and one man's dogged struggle for independence.

MEDIA REVIEWS

The greatest Icelandic novel and surely one of the best books of the 20th century... I read it as a teenager and it had a life-lasting effect - Hallgrímur Helgason, author of 101 Reykjavik, Guardian

Laxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: It is not possible to be unimpressed - Daily Telegraph

Marvellously fluent and unaffected... one of the most original and skilfully written novels of the 20th century - Times Literary Supplement

There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life - New York Review of Books

Do yourself a favour and read Independent People. Opening this book is like opening a chest of treasures. Reading this book is like taking the treasures out and appreciating them, savouring them, one by one, sentence by sentence. This is the kind of novel that reminds you how glad you are that you learned to read in the first place - Chicago Tribune

A masterpiece

To read him is to discover an extra tastebud. He creates a world that belongs in another dimension, like the landscape of his country - familiar, strange, seen as in a dream... an endearing and unforgettable voice - Daily Telegraph

It moved me immensely

Marvellously fluent and unaffected...one of the most original and skilfully written novels of the 20th century. - T.L.S