Stormland (2005)
2005
Fiction
Set in North Iceland, Stormland tells the story of Böddi, an angry blogger in the countryside, who dreams about a revolution and the complete overhaul of the western capitalist system. Soaked in German literature, philosophy and romantic idealism à la Nietzsche, after his years of study in Berlin, he finds it hard to fit into his old and very small home town. Böddi is the guy who never makes compromises. Living with his lonely mother, the TV addict, he loses his teaching job on the first page, his love midway and his mind at the end of the book.
The story of a solitary rebel, who is too smart for his own village, too angry for the city, and too frank for his country.
A movie based on the novel, was released in Iceland in 2009.
- Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2007
- Nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize 2005
Set in North Iceland,
Reviews
"Stormland is Helgason‘s fourth application for the very top of the premiere league in the company of Tolstoy, Proust, Mann, Nabokov."
www.literaturkritik.de
"A North Atlantic tour de force that in all its wildness is so completely different from all other Nordic literature."
BERLINGSKE TIDENDE
"If we need a bestseller from the Nordic countries it should, by all means, be this one, Stormland."
DEUTSCHLANDFUNK, BÜCHERMARKT
"A Don Quixote of our days."
STUTTGARTER ZEITUNG
"... magnificent character sketches, hilarious and yet natural dialogue (far too rare in Icelandic novels), and wickedly embarrassing situations."
MORGUNBLADID DAILY
Five stars of five possible "… a haunting and powerful story … a tragic tale of one who engages in battle against a stronger power and is doomed to failure from the outset."
DV NEWSPAPER
Rights Sold
NorwayCappelen Damm
GermanyKlett-Cotta
SwedenNorstedts
DenmarkAschehoug