The Casket of Time (2013)
Winner — Green Earth Book Honor Award 2020
Winner — The Icelandic Literary Prize, for Children and Young People's Books
Winner — The West-Nordic Literature Prize 2013
Winner — Reykjavik Children's Literature Prize 2014
Winner — Icelandic Booksellers' Prize
2013
296 pages
Children's Books
9-12 years
A tale on two levels – a powerful journey into myth and time, at once eerily familiar and utterly new!
An exhilarating tale of mystery, memory and magic, alternatively delightful, disturbing, and diverting.
A king who has conquered the world realizes he will eventually lose everything unless he can conquer time. Obsessed with saving his princess from the inevitable fate of mortality, he eventually comes across something that looks like a glass casket, so densely woven with spider silk that time itself can not penetrate its walls. One day a boy opens the casket and the princess discovers that 20 years have passed, the kingdom is crumbling and the king has gone mad. On the other level humans have invented magical caskets, giving them the power to be sealed away from time and to temporarily escape reality, like Mondays and Februaries and rainy days. When bad times are ahead, people crawl into their caskets and wait for better times. But one day, teenage Sigrun‘s casket opens and she is confronted by an abandoned city in ruins, with everyone stuck in black caskets waiting for things to get better. She meets an old lady in a house full of children and archaeological artefacts. The old lady tells them a tale of a greedy king who conquered the world but yearned to conquer time. Sigrun sees parallels between the tale and the present-day and realizes it’s up to her and her friends to break an ancient curse and fix the world. Green Earth Book Honor Award 2020, USA Nominated as the Best Translated Fantasy in Finland 2018, along with Ursula K Le Guin and David Mitchell The Icelandic Literary Prize, for Children and Young People’s Books The West-Nordic Literature Prize 2013 Nomination for The Nordic Council Children and Young People‘s Literature Prize Reykjavik Children’s Literature Prize 2014 Icelandic Booksellers‘ Prize as best teenage book of the yearThe Casket of Time (2013)
A tale on two levels – a powerful journey into myth and time, at once eerily familiar and utterly new!
An exhilarating tale of mystery, memory and magic, alternatively delightful, disturbing, and diverting.
“... utterly gripping.” Vera Knutsdottir, bokmenntir.is (Reykjavik City Library)
Reviews
The love child of Chomsky and Lewis Carroll.
Rebecca Solnit (author of A Paradise Built in Hell)
… I loved this book so much — it is a cerebral tale, well told and unabashedly philosophical. It is dark, funny and grim. … the central message of the book is clear, and it’s welcome. Greed hurts us; power ruins us; and time has never been our enemy. Indeed, Magnason reminds us, as long as our tendency toward self-destruction doesn’t get in the way, time is the earth’s, and humanity’s, greatest healer.
Kelly Barnhill, The New York Times
This is a book I would put on a shelf with The Hobbit, Alice in Wonderland and The Little Prince. A children's story but it would be very good for adults to read it as well.
Eric Lorberer of Rain Taxi Review
[A] beautiful and haunting Snow White–inspired tale…. Magnason, a celebrated writer and the second runner-up in Iceland’s 2016 presidential election, has woven a literary fantasy with environmentalist themes that will find fans among thoughtful young readers.
Eleanor Roth, Booklist
I have not previously seen the fairy tale genre so well tied up with a sci-fi story, a fantasy tale and a contemporary drama all at once. It really is elegant and full of surprises. I am therefore not at all surprised that the book has already won a few awards in Iceland. It would not surprise me if it also won the Nordic Council Children and Young People‘s Literature Prize.
Weekendavisen, Denmark
In The Casket of Time, present, future and past are interwoven with a fantasy world familiar to all but which no-one has inhabited. Within its compelling tapestry of facts, truth, magic and wonder Magnason poses urgent questions about the lifestyles and values of present-day Western society, and about the responsibility each of us bears for the state of the world. The story confronts the concept of time and twists old fairy-tale memories with a passionate creativity. Magnason is one of Iceland’s most dynamic writers of recent years, a fierce social critic who frequently combines clear-cut messages with humour. He has often taken the authorities and big business to task in his writings, and The Casket of Time is no exception in that respect.
The Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize - an excerpt from the Icelandic selection committee’s citation of The Casket of Time
Magnason has created an intimate epic that floats effortlessly between genres as diverse as fairy tale and political commentary, science fiction and social realism. The Casket of Time spans the chasm between “once upon a time” and “have you heard the news today” in a way that makes his philosophical fable feel both timely and timeless.
Danish architect and futurist Bjarke Ingels, often cited as one of the most inspirational architects of our time
An entertaining and imaginative book … I doubt there is a better Icelandic children’s book on the market this year.
Kolbrun Bergthorsdottir, Kiljan, National Broadcasting Service
A new book by Andri Snær Magnason is always big news, and his fans have had to wait far too long since his last one. Their patience has been amply rewarded with the arrival of The Casket of Time, an extremely entertaining fairy tale, brimming with imagination, that spirits the reader away into an unknown world, both mesmerising and frightening. ... Magnason is a highly entertaining storyteller, and the tale swirls with memorable images, themes both original and familiar, strong characters, and a thrilling plot. ...The message that we need to act no later than now is clear, and yet The Casket of Time does not preach in the slightest – Magnason is much too skilled a writer to do that. The maxim of adventure rules here, and readers of all ages will easily forget time and place as they read. Conclusion: A sparkling and entertaining adventure story in two time eras with a clear moral which, however, never turns into a sermon.
Fridrika Benonysdottir, Frettabladid
… The Casket of Time is, above all, an extremely entertaining read. Here, just as in The Story of The Blue Planet, Magnason succeeds in telling a very entertaining story, a fairy tale that encapsulates a powerful and haunting message without any hint of preaching. With his customary effortless style he puts old remembered fairy tales into new context to create a plotline that is at times thrilling. This demonstrates yet again that Magnason is one of our very best storytellers.
Anna Lilja Thorisdottir, Morgunbladid daily
Here we have a timeless fairy tale, and Magnason’s depiction of this magical world is magnificently well realized.
Jon Bjarki Magnusson, DV daily
The largest box of chocolate written in the Icelandic language that I have ever laid my hands on... This is confectionery for the mind! Wow! It is so good that I forgot to make notes … This is a book for the 3 year old, the 30 year old, the 300 year old.
Audur Haraldsdóttir, Channel2, National Radio
... utterly gripping.
Vera Knutsdottir, bokmenntir.is (Reykjavik City Library)
Awards
Won
- Green Earth Book Honor Award 2020USA
- The Icelandic Literary Prize, for Children and Young People's Books
- The West-Nordic Literature Prize 2013
- Reykjavik Children's Literature Prize 2014best teenage book of the year
- Icelandic Booksellers' Prizebest teenage book of the year
Nominated
- Best Translated Fantasy 2018Finland
- The Nordic Council Children and Young People's Literature Prize
Rights Sold
Translation rights sold
BrazilMorro Branco
Czech RepublicOneHotBook, audiobook
DenmarkTiderne Skifter
EgyptMahrousa
FinlandAula & Co
GreecePatakis
HungaryGondolat Kiado
ItalyGiunti
JapanNHK
KoreaArumbooks
LatviaLiels un mazs
LithuaniaTerra Publica
MacedoniaAntolog
Mainland ChinaJieli
RomaniaParalela 45
RussiaGorodets
TaiwanEastern
TurkeyDomingo Yayınevi
UkraineCrocus
World EnglishRestless Books