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Father's big secret
An Icelandic cannibal wreaks havoc in Denmark...
Fathers Big Secret, Þórarinn Leifsson's first children's book, was released in Denmark this spring, translated by Birgir Thor Møller as Fars store hemmelighed. Good reviews have appeared in Denmark, where critics have compared Þórarinn to well known authors such as Roald Dahl and Ole Lund Kirkegaard.
Politiken, one of Denmark's foremost cultural newspapers, published a review by Steffen Larsen, a well known critic, who called the book a "surreal firecracker." Steffen acknowledged that Þórarinn had roots in Roald Dahl and adds: „Thorarinn Leifsson has written — and illustrated— a wild and wise book about children's conditions … Thorarinn has illustrated the book himself with a violent energy. Pictures and text work well together.”
Danish National Radio's "Troldspejlet" website describes the book as an "incredibly funny and grotesque story about an ordinary family with a most unusual head of the househould … can be described as a modern version of the fantasy realism we know from Ole Lund Kirkegaard's book about Rubber Tarzan."
The reader of the Danish Library Center (DBC) recommends the book: "Read this ravingly crazy story or give it to readers of both sexes from the age of 11 … Funny, grotesque and touching illustrations with an expression entirely of their own … The book is easy to read and very entertaining in all its horror … If one likes books such as The Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle then one should not be disappointed by this one … well written and funny with a serious undertone."
Jan Vandall at the book review website Bogvægten.dk describes the book as "pure-bred Icelandic madness" and thinks it is "humorously illustrated and brilliantly puts focus on a string of children's problems.”
And the praise continues on the reader's website Bogguide.dk where bookseller Lena Winter writes:
"Fathers Big Secret is a book you swallow in one go. One laughs, cringes and is dismayed by the funny characters and crazy story-line. Fathers Big Secret is in its own genre. A kind of social-realist children's crime fiction with fantastical illustrations.”
Further information: www.totil.com and www.fathersbigsecret.com