All My Father's Children (2018)

2018

271 pages

Fiction

Some people don’t make life any more complicated for themselves than they have to—they live and let live. But Janus is not one of these people. Upon discovering that he has eleven half-siblings with whom he shares the same father, he embarks on a journey to find all of them, a journey that takes him far and wide across the country. These meetings have mixed results—not everyone’s willing to meet a brother they didn’t even know existed. But Janus doesn’t let that stop him and wanders from one place to another, entering the everyday realities of these unknown relations, all of whom are swimming around in their own worlds like fish in a bowl. A skillfully woven family drama filled with characters the likes of whom rarely find their way into novels, but who nevertheless are surprisingly familiar.

R E V I E W S

Reviews

“In All My Father's Children, Helgadottir employs an engaging narrative technique incorporating different points of view and, in fact, multiple narrators. Moreover, the reader is constantly surprised, seeing which character is at the center of each chapter.“

MAGNUS GUDMUNDSSON, FRETTABLADID DAILY

“Steinunn has found her voice as an author of prose works, and she is an undoubted talent.”

EINAR FALUR INGOLFSSON, MORGUNBLADID DAILY

“All My Father's Children is a brilliant book by one of the most interesting and talented writers I've read in a long time.”

ADALSTEINN SVANUR SIGFUSSON

“The book is well-written, hilarious in parts, and challenges the reader to consider whether blood is really thicker than water.”

VIKAN WEEKLY

“...with a personal style and a magic that is really catching … and the humour is simply wonderful.”

KOLBRUN BERGTHORSDOTTIR, KILJAN/ICELANDIC NATIONAL TV

“A great sense of humour!”

EGILL HELGASON, KILJAN/ICELANDIC NATIONAL TV

“It’s a nice touch to let characters others than Janus and his siblings tell the story of the time he got to meet his half-siblings, or else when he didn’t … There is no lack of humour or spontaneous storytelling in this book.”

LIFDU NUNA

“It is really fascinating to be able to get Janus’ history from many points of view and from different characters. … I feel this book manages to capture the variety of life in a unique manner. Each single character is unique for a reason, and if the author does not expose such a reason from the onset with a single phrase, the reader will be able to grasp the essence by reading between the lines, or by making it up while reading … It was a rare pleasure to read this book ...”

KATRIN LILJA, LESTRARKLEFINN

“We get a global picture of the adventurous trip Janus made throughout the country looking for his half-siblings. Furthermore, we get a varied palette of the author’s imagination and her ingenuous use of points of view. This is a polyvalent narration conveying the spirit of the seventies with humour, warmth, mystery, and horror. It will be interesting to see how Steinunn will evolve, with her obvious and unusual talents...”

THORGEIR TRYGGVASON, BOOK CRITIC

“… at the back of my mind, while writing this book, I had the thought that people are always searching for something. It’s a collective search and many of us do not even know what we are searching for. You can call it a father or a mother. It does not matter. What really matters is the need and the search. In this search you need there to be something in front of you other than the void. Take Janus for example; he is frightened of the open sky and finds it difficult to look up into it. It is a terrifying thought how empty space is while at the same time it is full of things unknown to us.”

STEINUNN G. HELGADOTTIR, interviewed by Magnus Gudmundsson, Frettabladid daily

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