News
The Ship pronounced crime novel of the year in France
In its newest issue, the French literary magazine Lire declares Stefán Máni's Skipið / The Ship – or Noir Océan, as it is titled in the French translation by Eric Boury – to be the best crime novel to appear in France this year.
The Lire's critic gives the novel a full score, calling it a “virtuosic feat”, and commending it for maintaining constant suspense throughout the story, and for not releasing its hold on the reader until the very last page. The reviewer describes the work as tragic and poetic, and finds Stefán Máni's prose to be characterized by an “unfettered fury”.
The Ship is Stefán Máni's first book to appear in France. The translation came out early this year, but after receiving positive response from critics, the book's sales picked up sharply, with another printing currently underway. The Ship's French publisher, Gallimard, has secured rights for an earlier work of Stefán Máni, Svartur á Leik / Black's Turn (2004), and has expressed interest in his future works.
The Ship has already appeared in Germany, Sweden and Denmark, and a Czech edition is on the way.