Saturday, January 12, 2008

What They're Reading in Reykjavik

According to the Iceland Review, homegrown crime writing is topping the charts on the North Atlantic island. Arnaldur Indridason's latest novel Hardskafi has sold a whopping 30,000 copies--in a country of only 300,000. That's the fastest selling Icelandic book ever. (Ísafold says that "Arnaldur er í toppformi.")

Indridason's earlier novel Jar City is the only one available in English as yet. But "Nordic Noir" is hot now, with publishers scrambling to find the next Henning Mankel. Wisconsin Public Radio's excellent program To the Best of Our Knowledge ran a good summary of the genre last month (here). You have to wade through the entire show for the book segment, but that's no hardship.--David E

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