HALLDÓR LAXNESS was born near Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1902. His first novel was published when he was seventeen. The undisputed master of contemporary Icelandic fiction and one of the outstanding novelists of the century, he has written more than sixty books, including novels short stories, essays, poems, plays and memoirs. In 1955 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in 1998.
"Reader rejoice! At last this funny, clever, sardonic and brilliant
book is back in print. Independent People is one of my Top Ten
Favourite Books of All Time." —Annie Proulx
"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. . .
. My favorite book by a living novelist is Independent People."
—Brad Leithauser
"I love this book. It is an unfolding wonder of artistic vision and
skill—one of the best books of the twentieth century. I can't
imagine any greater delight than coming to Independent People for
the first time." —Jane Smiley
"This beautiful and heartbreaking novel has haunted me ever since I
was lent a rare copy years ago, and I am delighted that what is
clearly a masterpiece by a relatively uncelebrated genius will now
be available to a wide audience of book lovers. If there is any
justice in the world, the name Laxness will soon become a household
word, at least in those households where timeless works of the
imagination are cherished." —Joel Conarroe
"Laxness has a poet's imagination and a poet's gift for phrase and
symbol. . . . Bjartur is a magnificent and complex symbol of
peasant independence." —The New York Times Book Review
"A strange story, vibrant and alive. . . . There is a rare beauty
in its telling, a beauty as surprising as the authentic strain of
poetry that lies in the shoving, battering Icelander." —Atlantic
Monthly
"A saga that somehow contrives to recapture the broad, clear air of
older Icelandic tales." —The Observer (London)
"[Laxness] gives a large picture of life under primitive
conditions, [he] writes vividly, using irony with vigorous effect;
amid the brutality and squalor there are rich moments of humor and
poetry." —The Spectator (London)
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