From Nobel Prize winner Halld?r Laxness
"Laxness brought the Icelandic novel out from the 'sagas' shadow...to read Laxness is also to understand why he haunts Iceland--he writes the unearthly prose of a poet cased in the perfection of a shell of plot, wit, and clarity." -- The Guardian
"Finally, finally, an imposing work of fiction, which rises like a cliff from the flatness of Icelandic poetry...