Book review: House of Evidence by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson

Set in 1973, the book begins with the discovery of Jacob Kieler, who has been found shot dead in his museum-like home in Reykjavík. Strangely, it transpires that his father, also named Jacob Kieler, was also found shot in the same room 30 years earlier. So who is the killer and why have they been targeted?

This is an ambitious book told from the perspectives of the various police offers investigating the case. Interspersed are diary entries from Jacob senior, who kept diaries for over 30 years. Anyone who has ever wondered why there are no trains in Iceland will love the details of Jacob senior’s life, which revolved around engineering and trying to bring the railroad to Iceland. This vision brought him to Germany and plans were on the point of fruition when WWI broke out. His brother Matthias visited him there and is still alive, but a little secretive about the past.

Jacob junior has preserved the family history well and ended up living frugally in a house full of artifacts. Why would he have any enemies and what happened to Matthias in WWII when he went to visit Jacob senior?

If this all sounds a little complicated, it is. The book that covers a lot of ground and sometimes features unnecessary details. It’s also a book that will probably appeal more to men than women in terms of the engineering and railroad side. There are many characters, some of whom you would like to see developed a bit more.

This book is really more of a mystery than I thought it would be from reading the cover, and having been written in 1998, is not just jumping on the Nordic crime bandwagon.

I liked the fact that it was set in 1973 as it makes some of the plot more interesting and is the only way it could incorporate the WWII storyline.

I’ll be reading Ingolfsson’s The Flatey Engima next and will be interested to compare the two books.

Book Review: The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley

The Tricking of Freya is a story told by the adult Freya Morris to a cousin she is searching for, about her childhood and her crazy Icelandic family. Perhaps crazy is a strong word, but in the actions of her mother and aunt it is obvious that things were not “right” in this family. For that reason, this book will appeal to a wider-than-Icelandic-fanatics audience – this story could be about anyone’s family. Freya’s family just happen to be of Icelandic descent and now living in the US and Canada.

There is a sense of mystery throughout the book, and all the loose ends are wrapped up by the end – perhaps a little too quickly after all the drama of the story. Freya visits Iceland in the book both as a child and an adult, but does not have happy times there. The author herself clearly has a strong knowledge of the Icelandic language and includes many little facts about the sagas, the language and all things Icelandic. A casual reader with no knowledge of Iceland could pick up quite a lot from this, or perhaps get irritated by it!

For a debut novel I thought this was a very good one. It’s funny and sad, and I enjoyed the author interview at the end where you find out where much of the inspiration for the story came from.

This book is published in the US, but I was able to get it through Amazon. The author’s website includes a blog about a trip she took to Iceland before the book and includes some photos that are interesting if you’ve read the book. I hope she continues to write Iceland-related fiction.

Book Review: Names for the Sea

Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss is that rare thing, a book about expat life in Iceland. Sarah spent a year there in 2009-2010, teaching at the University. Of course this was aninteresting point in Icelandic history, with both the Kreppa and the Eyjafjallajokull eruptions.

I was so excited to read this book, as the only other good English language book of this type that I’ve come across is Ripples from Iceland, which is now 50 years old.

Moss is there with her husband and two small children, living in an unfinished development in Garðabær. The initial things that she notices are the shortage of good quality fresh fruit and vegetables, the lack of secondhand anything to buy and the fact that they are pretty much the only people without a car or two or three. Colleagues and acquaintances are helpful and show her the Icelandic way of acquiring things, through the huge extended network that anyone local would have.

It’s hard for her to notice the kreppa too much as a foreigner, as everyone she knows still seems to be spending excessively, driving huge cars and leaving the windows open all the time so the abundant heating can go out the window. Unfortunately it means her salary has been severely cut, meaning financial worries for the duration of the stay, and knowing that they cannot stay for more than a year.

One of their first jobs is to manage finding the right school and daycare. It becomes obvious how overprotected British children are and how much we worry about things that haven’t happened to them. The children settle in quicker than the parents as is always the case and become the better Icelandic speakers.

She learns a lot about living in a small population through her students, often inadvertently. They are mortified at an exercise involving talking to strangers, and horrified at the thought of selling their own goods rather than taking them to the dump or charity shop in case anyone they know buys them and has to feel embarrassed. They wouldn’t dream of going to the National Museum until she drags them there, but then are proud of the fact that everything there is actually Icelandic and not stolen from someone else’s culture as in most large and famous museums.

The subject of foreigners generally is a bit of a touchy one, as with the financial crisis more Icelanders require aid than ever before, and there is controversy about putting aid for Icelandic nationals ahead of foreigners. Visiting a food bank with one of the students, she finds everyone there is ashamed to be there and no one wants to talk about it. The student is more surprised than she is that there is poverty here.

Ultimately, the family does get a car as despite the expense it is worth it for the weather, and they do get out of Reykjavík, but only a little bit. I can appreciate that with a full-time job and two children it may have been easier not to venture out too much, but I wished they had. She does meet some interesting people on her travels and finds out about life during WWII and elves amongst other things.

The end of her stay is somewhat marred by volcanic eruptions stopping friends from visiting or Sarah attending job interviews outside of Iceland, although ironically this is also the time when they seem to travel the most within Iceland. Ultimately, leaving Iceland brings mixed emotions of sadness and relief.

This is a great book if you are looking for something beyond a travel guide that isn’t fiction. It’s a realistic, honest account of one family’s experiences during a year in Iceland.

Book Review: LoveStar by Andri Snær Magnason

LoveStar is a businessman who has placed Iceland at the enter of the world by creating technology that pairs people off with their best match from anywhere on the planet, while another of his companies changes the way the dead are disposed of. As part of his latest venture, he has tracked down the area where all prayers end up – what will happen when he arrives there? At the same time we are following the sad tale of a couple who have paired themselves off and are now under immense pressure to be paired off technologically with other people instead. Finally, what kind of world would it be if everyone was bombarded with messages aimed directly at them, by cordless people and data being transmitted via nature rather than through wires?

As you can see, there are a lot of big ideas here. If you like Kurt Vonnegut’s writing style you will like this book, which is presented in a satirical way but with a serious message underneath. His vision of the future is chilling and presents a world that no one would actually want to live in.  For me the weak point would be that some of the more outlandish aspects such as the Big Bad Wolf didn’t appeal to me, but that is a personal preference. The ending was left somewhat open (I think) and I would have preferred it to be a bit more clear.

LoveStar isn’t the kind of book I would normally pick up – it looked a bit too much like science fiction for me, and was also pretty pricey at Keflavík Airport (you don’t have to pay big money for this book like I did – it’s now available on Amazon). However, translated Icelandic books are few and far between and this one had received awards on publication in 2002 so I thought I’d give it a try. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it and appreciated the intelligent writing style. If Magnason’s name sounds familiar, it may be because the popular film Draumalandið about the destruction of Iceland’s natural resources is based on another of his books.

This book will be one of those that is either loved or hated by a reader, as it is so unusual. Give it a try, even if it’s not your usual kind of read.

Book Review: Cold Comfort by Quentin Bates

Cold Comfort is the second in the series of Sergeant Gunnhildur mysteries, following on from Frozen Out.

Gunna is now working in Reykjavík, having been promoted from her small-town job. The crimes this time are more city-seedy, with a whole cast of unsavoury characters and the murder of a Z-list celebrity. Without giving too much away, the plot is quite intricate and if you like a good crime novel this will appeal. I can see why as an author it would be easier to come up a crime series set in a city rather than a village, but as a reader I like to read about the eccentricities of small-town life, and would like to see her return.

As in the previous book, we see glimpses of Gunna’s personal life and the pressures of juggling family life and a new boyfriend with a job in the police force. She also has a friend with man troubles. I sometimes find these flashes of personal life more interesting than the “mystery” element in stories and this one has a good combination of both.

Iceland’s kreppa still has a part to play, with a general feeling of “life was better just a few years ago” and some having lost almost all their assets. At times there are real feelings of despair and the grimness of some people’s lives comes through.

Bates writes in a very British style sometimes which I can appreciate is hard to avoid. The positive side of this is that there is some good British-style humour in the book which works for me but may not for readers outside the UK. I have seen other reviewers comment on the many long Icelandic names used and agree that this could be intimidating if Iceland is new to you.

All in all another good and recommended book with Iceland at its core. The next one is being published soon!