Independent People (Panther S.) - Softcover

Laxness, Halldor

4.14

12,411 ratings by Goodreads

9781860467769: Independent People (Panther S.)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860467768 ISBN 13: 9781860467769

Publisher: Harvill Press, 2001

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Bjartus is a sheep farmer hewing a living from a blighted patch of land in Iceland. After 18 years of servitude to a master he despises, all he wants is to raise his flock unbeholden to anyone. Nothing, not inclement weather, not his wives, not his family will come between him and his goal of financial independence. Only Asta Solillja, the child he brings up as his daughter, can pierce his stubborn heart. But she too wishes to live independently - and when Bjartus throws her from the house on discovering she is pregnant, her more temperate determination is set against his stony will.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

"Reader rejoice! At last this funny, clever, sardonic and brilliant book is back in print. Independent People is one of my Top Ten Favourite Books of All Time." --Annie Proulx

"There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life. . . . My favorite book by a living novelist is Independent People." --Brad Leithauser

"This beautiful and heartbreaking novel has haunted me ever since I was lent a rare copy years ago, and I am delighted that what is clearly a masterpiece by a relatively uncelebrated genius will now be available to a wide audience of book lovers. If there is any justice in the world, the name Laxness will soon become a household word, at least in those households where timeless works of the imagination are cherished." --Joel Conarroe

"Laxness has a poet's imagination and a poet's gift for phrase and symbol. . . . Bjartur is a magnificent and complex symbol of peasant independence." --The New York Times Book Review
"A strange story, vibrant and alive. . . . There is a rare beauty in its telling, a beauty as surprising as the authentic strain of poetry that lies in the shoving, battering Icelander." --Atlantic Monthly

"A saga that somehow contrives to recapture the broad, clear air of older Icelandic tales." --The Observer (London)

"[Laxness] gives a large picture of life under primitive conditions, [he] writes vividly, using irony with vigorous effect; amid the brutality and squalor there are rich moments of humor and poetry." --The Spectator (London)

Book Description:

An engrossing and humane modern classic, imbued with the lyrical force of medieval ballads and Nordic myth.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.