Heaven and Hell

About this book

Jn Kalman Stefnsson is the winner of the Icelandic Prize for Literature and has been nominated three times for the Nordic Council Prize for Literature. Heaven and Hell is a perfectly formed vivid and timeless story lyrical in style and as intense a reading experience as the forces of the Icelandic landscape themselves. Der Spiegel said it was like an oystera glinting treasure in a rough shell. In a remote part of Iceland a boy and his friend Barur join a boat to fish for cod. A winter storm surprises them out at sea and Barur absorbed in Paradise Lost succumbs to the ferocious cold and dies. Distraught from the murky circumstances of Barurs death the boy leaves the village intending to return the book to its original owner. The extreme hardship and danger of the journey is of little consequence to himhe has already resolved to join his friend in death. But once in the town he immerses himself in the stories and lives of its inhabitants and decides that he cannot be with his friend just yet.