And the Wind Sees All (2011)

“I see the secrets. I see the people cooking and pottering about, pissing, being silent, skulking. Some are crying, some are listening, some are staring. I see the people screaming into their pillows, throwing out rubbish and useless memories, and I do not look away. I never look away.”

In a little village the paths of peoples’ lives are variously interwoven, and even though many are very familiar with each other, no-one knows what lies hidden in the next person’s head, in the memory palaces of the mind.

In sixteen closely-linked stories all happening during the same two minutes, Thorsson presents people of flesh and blood, familiar folk who battle with life and an  existence which is at times grey and cruel but at also incomparably wonderful. In an exceptionally chiselled and beautiful text which is bound to touch many people deeply, characters and sentiments spring to life, resulting in an entertaining and lively story arc where the great is reflected in the small, the whole of Iceland in a little village. The author cites Sherwood Anderson's seminal 1919 short story cycle Winesburg, Ohio as his favourite example of the form, a book known as one of the earliest works of Modernist literature, placed midway between the novel proper and the mere collection of stories.

Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2012 Chosen as one of the 50 best books published in Denmark 2014