Heavy Clouds (2021)

2021

120 pages

Fiction

“... it‘s like there is a darkness enveloping him, ever since, it‘s always overcast around him.“ A strange boy in a remote town is obsessed with everything that flies; first the birds in the air, then the large steel birds that he increasingly sees over his homelands. On a heavy spring day, he stands on the shore below the town when a large passenger plane appears out of a thick cloud. The people in the windows are waving. Later that day it is reported that the plane is missing. Farmers set off by boat to search for the plane and the boy goes with them. In a nearby fjord, debris has been spotted in the mountains and a search party goes ashore and ventures up the steep slope, the boy leading, quick on his feet. What he finds at the edge of the ridge is indescribable. But there is one little light of life that he must not let go out. The spellbinding story of a devastating flight accident by the far north sea, a fateful rescue mission, and its effects on the people who take part. Karason set a new tone in Storm Birds, released in 2018, which enjoyed great success. The Sunday Times named it the best translated fiction of the year 2020, and it won a prestigious Swedish translation award in 2019. In Heavy Clouds Karason follows a similar historical path, loosely based on true events.

Heavy Clouds (2021)

JORUNN SIGURDARDOTTIR, NATIONAL BROADCASTING SERVICE

KRISTJAN JOHANN JONSSON, FRETTABLADID DAILY

GRETA SIGRIDUR EINARSDOTTIR, ICELAND NATIONAL BROADCASTING SERVICE

Reviews

An intensely affecting read, well told … it touched me deeply, and I find Einar Karason to be a hugely talented storyteller.

Kolbrun Bergthorsdottir, Kiljan National TV

Heavy Clouds is a dense and powerful story that shines a light into the depths of the human experience.

Jorunn Sigurdardottir, National Broadcasting Service

A chiseled story of strong emotions, life and death. The author is an experienced storyteller and the story shows it in every detail.

Kristjan Johann Jonsson, Frettabladid Daily

… the narration is marked by an unflinching precision free of any frivolous drama. The reader must read between the lines, but as such the events of the story are all the more powerful. … Einar Karason shows the reader here no mercy. The commonplace future plans made by the people in the plane juxtaposed against charred human remains plucked at my every last heartstring. Though the story centers on the people who arrived at the wreck and its survivors. … the story renders a heartfelt portrait of everyday people who must contend with unthinkable circumstances and do so without complaint. … there is power in the silence and although the country people are reticent to speak about their experiences, it's clear that they have not remained unaltered through it all. … Storm Birds was one of my favorite books last Christmas and Heavy Clouds gives it a run for its money.

Greta Sigridur Einarsdottir, Iceland National Broadcasting Service

Heavy Clouds by Einar Karason is not a long novel but leaves in its wake a long trail of emotions and impressions. ... This is a little gem of a book that one could easily read over and over.

Steingerdur Steinarsdottir, Vikan

Rights Sold

Translation rights sold

HungaryL'Harmattan

SwedenThorén & Lindskog