num_pages: 338
description: Sometimes grim, sometimes uproarious, and always captivating, Iceland's Bell by Nobel Laureate Halldór Laxness is at once an updating of the traditional Icelandic saga and a caustic social satire. At the close of the 17th century, Iceland is an oppressed Danish colony, suffering under extreme poverty, famine, and plague. A farmer and accused cord-thief named Jón Hreggviðsson makes a bawdy joke about the Danish king and soon after finds himself a fugitive charged with the murder of the king's hangman.In the years that follow, the hapless but resilient rogue Jón becomes a pawn entangled in political and personal conflicts playing out on a far grander scale. Chief among these is the star-crossed love affair between Snaefríður, known as Iceland's Sun; a beautiful, headstrong young noblewoman, and Arnas Arnaeus, the king's antiquarian, an aristocrat whose worldly manner conceals a fierce devotion to his downtrodden countrymen. As their personal struggle plays itself out on an international stage, Iceland's Bell creates a Dickensian canvas of heroism and venality, violence and tragedy, charged with narrative enchantment on every page.
language: Norwegian
title: Islands Klokke
titlecomplete: Islands Klokke
characters: Magnus Sigurdsson, Arnas Arnaeus, Snaefridur, Jon Hreggvidsson
genres: Classics, European Literature, Nobel Prize, Novels, Historical Fiction, Literature, 20th Century, Literary Fiction, Fiction, Scandinavian Literature
ratings_count: 2110
places: Iceland
awards: awardedAt: 978336000000
name: American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Prize
publisher: Tiden Norsk Forlag