Out of the Blue: New Short Fiction from Iceland

This extraordinary collection, the first anthology of Icelandic short fiction published in English translation, features work by twenty of Iceland's most popular and celebrated living authors--including Andri Sn r Magnason, J n Kalman Stef nsson, Krist n marsd ttir, and Au ur J nsd ttir--granddaughter of Halld r Laxness, who won the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Celebrated in Europe and Scandinavia but less known in the English-speaking world, these writers traverse realms of darkness and light that will be familiar to readers who have fallen under the spell of Scandinavian fiction. While uniquely Icelandic in topography and tenor, with a touch of the island's supernatural charm, the stories traffic in the enduring and universal complexities of human nature. Here is a fictional universe where the ghosts of Vikings and spirits tread, volcanoes grumble underfoot, and writers trip the Northern Lights fantastic across the landscape of the Icelandic imagination.

At long last, readers can enjoy award-winning stories now expertly rendered into English by the country's most renowned translators. In "Killer Whale" a father contemplates euthanasia for a terminally ill child, in "Self Portrait" a vacationing family in Spain crosses paths with migrants, in "Escape for Men" a woman searches for an ex-lover in the South of France, and in "The Most Precious Secret" the nature of artists and the art world is mercilessly revealed. Both the Viking myths of Iceland's forefathers and the cutting-edge modern world of the country today are brilliantly alive in these remarkable and original stories.

This collection is an excursion to an island where almost two million travelers descend yearly on a population of 345 thousand natives. Iceland is the place Bj rk calls home, the location where Game of Thrones was filmed--a place with open lava fields, glaciers, and iceberg lagoons among other natural wonders that is becoming one of the "hottest" tourist destinations on earth.

Out of the Blue transports readers to Iceland's timeless and magical island of Vikings and geographical wonders, and it promises to be a seminal collection that will define Icelandic literature in translation for decades to come.

Contributors: Au ur Ava Olafsd ttir, Krist n Eir ksd ttir, rarinn Eldj rn, Gyr ir El asson, Einar rn Gunnarsson, lafur Gunnarsson, Einar M r Gu mundsson, Au ur J nsd ttir, Ger ur Kristn , Andri Sn r Magnason, skar Magn sson, Bragi lafsson, Krist n marsd ttir, skar rni skarsson, Magn s Sigur sson, J n Kalman Stef nsson, g st Borg r Sverrisson, Gu mundur Andri Thorsson, runn Erlu-Valdimarsd ttir, R nar Helgi Vignisson.

Helen Mitsios is a poet, author, literary critic, and editor of the groundbreaking anthologies New Japanese Voices: The Best Contemporary Fiction from Japan, which was twice listed both as a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and "Summer Reading" selection; also Digital Geishas and Talking Frogs: The Best Short Stories from Japan; and most recently Beneath the Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary Icelandic Poetry. An award-winning poet, she is author of If Black Had a Shadow and coauthor of Waltzing with the Enemy: A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust. She is a professor of languages and literature at Touro College and University System in New York City.

Sjón is an award-winning Icelandic author whose novels The Blue Fox, The Whispering Muse, From the Mouth of the Whale and Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was have been translated into thirty-five languages. Also a poet, he has published nine poetry collections, written four opera librettos and lyrics for various artists. In 2001 he was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics in the film Dancer in The Dark. Sjón is the president of the Icelandic PEN Centre. He lives in Reykjavik.