literary fiction
Miss Iceland
Hekla goes to Reykjavik to write. She takes just a few things with her, including her typewriter and Joyce's Ulysses. There she learns that as a woman, you can't succeed in some fields. She gets a proposition to participate in a Miss Iceland competition. But nobody would publish a novel that is written by a woman. So she writes under a pseudonym.
We get the image of Iceland in the sixties: gray, cold, homophobic, discriminatory. Vulcanic eruptions make it even grayer.
This one is one of those little gems I find from time to time. Excellent writing style, I liked it a lot. You don't get a dense narrative in this novel. You get bits and pieces, and you have to read between the lines and make your conclusions. It is an art to assemble a thought-provoking story full of meaning from these fragments. It is one of those novels that leaves you thinking about it long after you finish it.
Miss Iceland is suitable for fans of international and European literature. I would say this one is not for everyone. Some mainstream book readers may not appreciate the beauty of this novel.
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir was born in Iceland in 1958, studied art history in Paris and has lectured in History of Art at the University of Iceland. Her earlier novel, The Greenhouse (2007), won the DV Culture Award for literature and was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Award. She currently lives and works in Reykjavik.
We get the image of Iceland in the sixties: gray, cold, homophobic, discriminatory. Vulcanic eruptions make it even grayer.
This one is one of those little gems I find from time to time. Excellent writing style, I liked it a lot. You don't get a dense narrative in this novel. You get bits and pieces, and you have to read between the lines and make your conclusions. It is an art to assemble a thought-provoking story full of meaning from these fragments. It is one of those novels that leaves you thinking about it long after you finish it.
Miss Iceland is suitable for fans of international and European literature. I would say this one is not for everyone. Some mainstream book readers may not appreciate the beauty of this novel.
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| Goodreads |
Details:
- author: Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
- full title: Miss Iceland
- genre: literary fiction
- format/type: bookfiction
- country: #iceland
- topics:
- publisher: Grove Atlantic
- publish date: June 16, 2020
- pages: 256
My Rating of the Book:
- content: 💙💙💙💙💙
About the Author:
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir was born in Iceland in 1958, studied art history in Paris and has lectured in History of Art at the University of Iceland. Her earlier novel, The Greenhouse (2007), won the DV Culture Award for literature and was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Award. She currently lives and works in Reykjavik.
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