01841 533804  

Independent People

£10.99

Bjartus is a sheep farmer. After 18 years of servitude to a master he despises, he desires to raise his flocks unbeholden to any man. Only Asta, the child he brings up, can pierce his stubborn heart, but she wishes to live unbeholden to him.

Peek Inside

Out of stock

Description

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

‘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

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.

‘I defy anyone to finish Halldór Laxness’s Independent People without wetting the pages with tears’ Jonathan Franzen, Guardian

‘The greatest Icelandic novel and surely one of the best books of the 20th century’ Hallgrìmur Helgason, Guardian

Read a sample here

Additional information

Weight 0.394 kg
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 3.4 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

544

Language

English

Edition

|Reprint

Dewey

839.6934 (edition:22)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K