Good morning everyone –
Last week I asked for book recommendations, and the hoddle commentariat delivered. Thank you!
Fitzie popped into the Barnes and Noble by Metro Centre on Friday evening with an entire list of Scandinavian writers, Nordic writers and those adjacent to it.
I looked for Karl Knausgard, Asko Sahlberg, Solvej Balle and Hildur Knutsdottir, but had trouble finding them.
Only after working my way around the mini-labyrinthine shelves did I find that there were a couple duplicate sections
listed alphabetically.
Oh! There’s Knausgard!
Ah, but it isn’t the one I had quite imagined. Let’s keep looking.
Oh! There’s Haldor Laxness! Yes, Haldor Laxness!
I flip through a few of the books that’s on offer and weigh Independent People in my hand. Per one hoddler this is a book that starts off slowly but is epic in scale, perhaps less approachable than Iceland’s Bell.
I take a quick look through the pages and it reminds me of a Danish book that is one of my all-time favourites: We The Drowned, by Carsten Jensen.
This Icelandic novel is probably sprawling than Jensen’s (although, who knows!), but I find comfort when Laxness is given comparable weight to some of the works and characters written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Vladimir Nabokov.
All of this is promising. Part of me wants to pick it up and start reading it tonight, but maybe we can hold off until the weekend to give it the attention it properly deserves.
Anyways, thanks all for your recommendations! They were well received, well researched and well read.
Fitzie’s track of the day: Voice of an Angel, by Dux Content
And now for your links:
BBC: “Trial looks to end goalkeeper tactical timeouts”
The Telegraph: “Arsenal’s pursuit of Vinicius Junior and whether the numbers add up”
Fifa: “Lopes Cabral gem wins Goal of the Tournament”
