News
Fabulous Iceland at the Leipzig Book Fair
Viking warrior/poet Egill Skallagrímsson (910-990) fights for......
Hallgrímur Helgason´s Grim opens portal for....
Nobel-prizewinner Halldór Laxness (1902-1998) rejoices over.....
The Miðgarður Serpent entwines the world for .........
For what? For the Fabulous Iceland promotion, presented at the Leipzig Book Fair in collaboration with the Icelandic Embassy in Berlin. Second only to the Frankfurt Book Fair in the German-speaking world, the Leipzig Book Fair enjoys great popularity among German readers. The Berlin embassies of the Nordic countries shared an exhibition stand at the Fair, along with their literary promotion agencies, and contemporary Icelandic literature was given a high profile.
This year's Fair broke attendance records, with 147,000 visitors during the four days. Many called at the Nordic stand, especially when writers were reading from their work. These included Steinunn Sigurðardóttir , who read from her Sólskinshesturinn/Sun Horse. A reviewer of this book, which was recently published, wrote: “in this unassuming 173-page book is more content that other writers can provide in three books.” Author Þórarinn Leifsson read from his Leyndarmálið hans pabba/Dad' s Secret which is being published in Germany as Papas Geheimnis. The story tells of siblings who have a grave parent-related problem; in order to save lives they must find a way to resolve the situation once and for all.
Lange Nacht der nordische Literatur/Long Night of Nordic Literature on the Friday evening was a resounding success: in addition to Steinunn Sigurðardóttir and Þórarinn Leifsson, Auður Jónsdóttir presented her Vetrarsól/Winter Sun, which is due for publication in Germany next year as Wintersonne.
Bookmarks with designs of Viking warrior/poet Egill Skallagrímsson, Hallgrímur Helgason's character Grim, Nobel-prizewinning novelist Halldór Laxness and the Miðgarður Serpent of Norse mythology were distributed to guests at the Book Fair. The bookmarks urge readers to visit the Fabulous Iceland website: www.sagenhaftes-island.is
The bookmarks made an impact:
