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. ABOUT THE INTRODUCER: John Freeman founded the literary annual Freeman's and is the author of several books including Dictionary of the Undoing, Maps and the Park. Currently artist in residence at New York University, he has edited a trilogy of books on inequality, the latest of which is Tales of Two Planets. His work has been published in more than twenty languages.
