Iceland

Memoir. 2009. A novelist's account of moving to Reykjavik with her husband and two small children, in the year the volcano erupted and in the aftermath of the financial crisis. A capturing of the wildness of the landscape and its unforgiving climate, the difficulties of being a stranger in a country whose language they do not speak and their experiences of a way of life, customs, and history they do not fully understand but learn to appreciate.

Historical fiction. Inspired by true events. 1829. In Northern Iceland a woman is condemned to death for murdering her lover.  In  that remote community there is no prison, and she must be taken in by a family until the date of her execution.  Until then a young priest is tasked with her absolution. Afraid, but duty-bound to comply, the family adjust to her presence, the harshness of the landscape reflected in their day-to-day lives. As the date draws nearer, and winter draws in, all is not quite as it seems.

Crime fiction. A first posting for a young policeman takes him away from Reykjavik and his girlfriend, to the remote village of Siglufjörður in Northern Iceland, a place that is hard to reach, accessible only by tunnel. Viewed as an outsider by a small community where everyone knows everyone, he is told 'not much happens here' and he finds it difficult to adjust and be accepted.  But then a woman is found bleeding and barely conscious and an ageing writer falls to his death in a theatre. Cut off from the rest of Iceland by an avalanche he is drawn into the investigation. Are the incidents connected and is there a killer trapped amongst them?

A concise history of Iceland and how a small country has had a big impact on the world.