Iceland is the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Bookfair so I will have some busy days in Germany from the 7th – 18th of October. Four of my books have now been published in Germany and one play will premier in November. My touring plan in October can be seen here.
- Click the picture for information in German!
Dreamland – Traumland has been published by Orange Press. Dreamland takes a look at Iceland as some kind of a microcosmos, a world in a nutshell, a small planet in itself. Dreamland tries to understand the worlds global problems by observing local problems in Iceland, where it is easy to observe things quite clearly – like living in a test tube. The American US Naval base wanted to leave Iceland – but we did not want to let them go. After fulfilling all the nations need for “clean” energy – the government marketed many of the most fragile and beautiful places in Iceland as a source of cheap energy for multinational corporations running the aluminum industry. If you want a relevant example we can take this waterfall – Aldeyjarfoss – from the Sagenhaftes marketing material – the waterfall is not yet protected.
Orange – Press has also Published Bónus Poetry. A mythological journey through a Bónus Supermarket. Two languages for the price of one – bilingual – in German and Icelandic. Bónus poetry remains one of the most sold volumes of poetry in the history of Icelandic publishing.
Click on the pink pig for the German website.
LoveStar – the paperback is coming out just in time for Frankfurt. LoveStar has been described as something like a mixture of Douglas Adams, Monty Pythons flying Circus, 1984 and the heartbreak romance of Nicolas Sparks. LoveStar won the DV literary award in Iceland and was chosen Novel of the Year by Icelandic booksellers. LoveStar was published by Lubbe – LoveStar is looking forward to meet it’s german audience looking for something more strange from Iceland than a normal crime plot!
And then it is The Story of the Blue Planet, Die Geschichte vom Blauen Planeten. The Blue Planet is the first and only children’s book to win the Icelandic literary award.
The story is published in german by Leipziger Kinderbuchverlag but has been published or sold to publishers in 25 languages. The play from the story will premier in Luzern in Swiss – November 30th.
And then two short stories will be published in Gaben des Himmels – an anthology of Icelandic short stories by Steidl Verlag. One of the stories has actually not been published in Icelandic yet. The book is called Gaben des Himmels and includes short stories by many good icelandic writers.
So I will be touring with my books, reading, speaking, signing the next weeks in Germany. As some will see here this portfolio is a bit strange. Poetry, children’s book, a play, literary science fiction and non fiction. If you are not interested in any of these subjects or have finished reading it all then you might like this CD with Icelandic folkmusic or you can watch Dreamland online here. The movie I co-directed, based on the book Traumland.