Summer light, and then comes the night : a novel / Jón Kalman Stefánsson ; translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780063136472
- ISBN: 0063136473
- ISBN: 9780063136489
- ISBN: 0063136481
- Physical Description: 249 pages ; 22 cm
- Edition: First HarperVia edition.
- Publisher: New York : HarperVia, 2021.
- Copyright: ©2020
Content descriptions
General Note: | "Originally published as Sumarljós, og svo kemur nóttin in Iceland in 2006 by Bjartur"--Title page verso. |
Awards Note: | Winner of The Icelandic Literature Prize, 2005 |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Villages > Iceland > Fiction. Interpersonal relations > Fiction. Desire > Fiction. Iceland > Fiction. |
Genre: | Icelandic fiction. Literary fiction. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Nakusp Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nakusp Public Library | FIC STE (Text) | 35160000816232 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2021 September #1
"Why do we live?" In this 2005 Icelandic Literary Prizeâwinning novel, Stefánsson plumbs the stories of "a small village in a country that's far from everything except eternal winter" for answers. "Over-powering" summer light and the relentless dark of winter arrive with flocks of migratory birds as ordinary people go about their lives, "stuck fast in the magnetic field of habit." Some are content; others long to break away. In the darkness, they dream, freed from time and conscience. A wise, gossipy Greek chorus looks into their hearts and tells all. Stefánsson is a superb storyteller with a metaphysical bent. He draws characters with empathy and wit, and frames their condition in existential dichotomies: modernity versus the past, mystical versus rational, destiny versus coincidence. A mix of casual and poetic imagery animates the philosophical point. Sometimes existence is coffee, crullers, and shipping pallets, and sometimes it is the "sky blowing Its bluesy harmonica for someone else." So, why do we live? Stefánsson suggests our purpose lies in endlessly seeking the answer. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2021 April
In this international best seller, winner of the Icelandic Literature Prize, the inevitable human dance between what we want and what we can have unfolds during the endless summer days and glittering winter nights of a village numbering 400 residents. No wonder Stefánsson has been called an "Icelandic Dickens" (Irish Examiner); with a 25,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2021 Library Journal. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2021 July #3
Stefánsson (
Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly.Fish Have No Feet ) delivers a delightfully dishy look at a small Icelandic village in the 1990s. A first-person-plural narration ties things together: "We're not going to tell you about the whole village.... You would find that intolerable. But we'll definitely be telling you about the lust that binds together days and nights." The director of the village's primary employer, the Knitting Company, began dreaming in Latin many years earlier, prompting him to collect rare books and deliver lectures to the community, earning him the name "the Astronomer." The Astronomer's son, DavÃð, works with the hefty Kjartan at the village depot, which may be haunted by the ghosts of murdered lovers from the 1800s. Kjartan, though married with children, falls for neighboring farmer KristÃn. ElÃsabet, an employee at the Knitting Company, opens a restaurant, much to the ire of the village's unemployed women, who claim she was unfairly advantaged. Throughout, the group focus turns from one resident to the next. There's no overarching narrative, but it adds up to an immersive and funny portrait of a community whose members squabble and celebrate in equal measure. Readers will be hooked by the mishmash of neighborhood gossip.Agent: Monica Gram, Copenhagen Literary Agency. (Sept.)