The Blue Panther, Audiobook (2025)

2025

96 pages

Fiction

Novella

A sharp, darkly playful novella about three listeners of an audiobook and the storyteller who refuses to stay in their lane. A streaming service has released a new audio book: The Blue Panther, a sweeping, dramatic retelling of an Icelandic woman’s extraordinary journey through war-ravaged Europe during the Second World War. But this novella isn’t about her. Instead, it follows three modern-day listeners as they try (and fail) to stay immersed in the audiobook's gripping plot. Daily distractions, personal dramas, and emotional triggers interfere until the story itself begins to twist, turn, and intrude, directed by a narrator who refuses to respect the boundaries between fact and fiction. With sly humour, inventive structure, and a razor-sharp ear for how stories are consumed today, The Blue Panther, Audiobook is a novella that explores the nature of storytelling, the illusion of authorial control, and what it means to listen, really listen, in a world of constant noise.

Nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize 2025
Nominated for the Icelandic Women's Literature Prize 2025

The Blue Panther, Audiobook (2025)

Reviews

A concise story about an elderly literary scholar with broken dreams of becoming a poet, a disillusioned historian who has become the marketing director of a confectionery factory, and a book-loving flight attendant who struggles to find her footing in adult life. What they share is listening—though with varying degrees of attention—to a mysterious audiobook, The Blue Panther, about an Icelandic woman who endures extraordinary trials during the Second World War, said to be based on real events. This is a bold structural experiment that succeeds through a thrilling chain of events, in which the author stretches the boundaries between historical sources, fiction, and truth.

THE JURY OF THE ICELANDIC LITERARY PRIZE, WHEN NOMINATED

The novella The Blue Panther, Audiobook by Sigrun Palsdottir, is modest in scale but tells a far larger story. Its setting is multilayered: three very different characters are, at the same time, listening to the same audiobook, The Blue Panther, the fateful tale of a young woman. The narrative is deftly woven, with regret, confusion, and unfinished business forming the threads that tie the characters together and bind them into an unspoken web of fate. Sigrun’s lively, vivid, and concise style shines in this multifaceted and sharp story.

THE JURY OF THE ICELANDIC WOMEN'S LITERATURE PRIZE, WHEN NOMINATED

Stories about stories within stories. That is the postmodern game being played in this novella about a group of audiobook listeners following the melodramatic tale of the adventurous life of Lana Marteins. ... The purpose of this postmodern game, however, is more serious at its core than the “dramatic comedy” suggested by the book’s cover. The novella offers interesting reflections on the relationship between fiction and history. ... The structure of the story is quite carefully crafted, relying on repeated tellings of the core narrative, each time with the interjections of one of the three listeners. ... These repetitions work well in a comic tale that not only parodies other stories but also refuses to take itself seriously at all.

GAUTI KRISTMANNSON, VIDSJA, NATIONAL RADIO

The Blue Panther; Audiobook bears all of Sigrun Palsdottir's authorial hallmarks, is original, vibrantly written, and has unexpected events and twists on almost every page. Three different people are listening to the same book, The Blue Panther, and experience it each in their own way ... Sigrun is a particularly nimble writer and writes in a lively and entertaining style. She always manages to weave an exciting and interesting plot. In all of her books, one can also find countless small, noteworthy, and funny incidents that sometimes determine people's destinies, and a certain undertone of irony is a good spice in this story.

SS, LIFDU NUNA

This is a labyrinth and a hall of mirrors in a postmodern style ... very entertaining

KILJAN, NATIONAL TV

Pálsdóttir writes with the hand of a mystery author and the mind of a postmodernist, teasing out her protagonist’s problem while playing with literary forms, fragmenting timelines, and injecting fierce irony.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Awards

Nominated

Icelandic Literary Prize 2025
Icelandic Women's Literature Prize 2025

Rights Sold

Translation rights sold

FranceÉditions Métailié