Sales of titles by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (l., in an Icelandic bookstore with her work) are heating up this winter in
Iceland, where the author's third mystery starring a Reykjavik lawyer
has just been published. Dig Your Own Grave is the No. 2 hardcover in the nation; and her second book, Ashes, is No. 1 on the paperback lists. Last Rituals, her first title featuring Thora Gudmundsdottir, was published here in October by Morrow ($23.95, 9780061143366/0061143367).
For a country of 300,000, Iceland is the kind of place where people
know most everyone else and word of mouth plays a major role in
establishing an author. Publishing abroad helps expand an author's
reach, but Sigurdardottir noted that she writes for the local audience
first and foremost. When foreign rights to Last Rituals were
sold after she had written just a few chapters, briefly she considered adding
material about Iceland's many historic and travel spots, "but then I decided I had to continue writing for other
Icelanders."
Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, Iceland's president (who is very proud that
last week the U.N. called Iceland the best country in which to live), said
that the tradition of
Icelandic literature written primarily for Icelanders dates back more
than a millennium: when Leif Ericcson discovered America, Icelanders
wrote about the trip in The Saga of Eric the Red "for themselves in a language no one else could understand. They had no need to broadcast it."
Icelanders
missed an opportunity for bragging rights for being the first Europeans
to the New World, but today more Icelandic titles are reaching foreign
readers. The emphasis on writing for locals--who have among the
highest literacy and book-reading rates in the world--means that a book
that meets Icelanders' standards should satisfy readers anywhere. Last Rituals
is an example of that: the complex narrative is set in the country's
prosperous present but mines its magical past, where
Christianity and paganism battled for centuries--and in some ways, continue to do so.--John Mutter
[Many thanks to HarperCollins and Icelandair for giving Shelf Awareness the chance to chase a story to the far reaches of the North Atlantic!]