Trafika Europe 1 - Northern Idyll

The Heart of Man (excerpt)

Jón Kalman Stefánsson

Born in Reykjavik in 1973, “Jón Kalman Stefánsson's novels are written from the same extreme viewpoint where man is left to his own devices, facing a world much greater than himself; a world that for him has neither cure, nor love,

but offers him only the changing seasons. Hjarta Mansinns (The Heart of Man) which concludes the Icelandic trilogy beginning with Himnaríki og Helvíti (Heaven and Hell), followed by Harmur Englanna (The Sorrow of Angels), centres around the ancient notion of the solitude of man, in an Iceland made of fishermen and wind, and the tenuous attachment to life. Because of this, man seeks friendship or love, even though he realises that this is futile."

‒ la Repubblica

Translated from Icelandic by Philip Roughton.

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