The Fish Can Sing - Softcover

Halldor Kiljan Laxness

3.88

2,749 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860466877 ISBN 13: 9781860466878

Publisher: Harvill Pr, 2000

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Alfgrim was an abandoned child whose mother gave birth to him in the turf cottage of Bjorn of Brekkukot, the fisherman, on the outskirts of Reykjavk. This is the tale of Alfgrim's boyhood and youth in the home of his grandparents in the early years of the twentieth century. It is a hospitable place, where dignified understatement is the norm and everything from a lumpfish to a Bible has a fixed price that never changes.

When Alfgrim goes to school and begins to learn Latin and music, he comes into contact with new attitudes toward the currencies of gold and language. The reigning spirit in this new world is the singer Gardar Holm, whose fantastic successes throughout the world have become a source of pride to his countrymen. Alfgrim's encounters with the singer only serve to make Gardar and his fame more mysterious and ambiguous.

A beautifully crafted tale by Iceland's finest writer.

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From the Publisher:

Translated from the Icelandic by Magnus Magnusson.

A childhood in Iceland is the background to this powerful and evocative tale.

Halld�r Laxness's wistfully tender novel tells the tale of Alfgrim, an abandoned child, whose mother gave birth to him in the turf-and-stone cottage of Bjorn of Brekkukot, the fisherman, on the outskirts of what is now Reykjav�k. It evokes his boyhood and youth, spent at his grandparents' home in the early years of the twentieth century, a hospitable place where dignified understatement was the norm and where everything from a lumpfish to a Bible had a fixed price that never changed.

Halld�r Laxness was born near Reykjav�k, Iceland, in 1902. He died in 1998. The undisputed master of contemporary Icelandic fiction, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.

About the Author:

Halldor Laxness was born in Iceland in 1902. In 1955 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Independent People, originally published in 1945, was reissued in 1998 by Vintage.

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