Overview

From the Mouth of the Whale is an Icelandic saga for the modern age. The year is 1635. Iceland is a world darkened by superstition, poverty, and cruelty. Men of science marvel over a unicorn's horn, poor folk worship the Virgin in secret, and both books and men are burned. Sjón introduces us to Jónas Pálmason, a poet and self-taught healer, banished to a barren island for heretical conduct, as he recalls his gift for curing female maladies, his exorcism of a walking corpse on the remote Snjáfjöll coast, the frenzied massacre of innocent Basque whalers at the hands of local villagers, and the deaths of three of his children. Pálmason's story echoes across centuries and cultures, an epic tale that makes us see the world anew.

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9780374159030

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Reviews

<p> The narrative is kaleidoscopic and mesmerizing, comic and poignant by turns. Victoria Cribb's translation brilliantly captures these multiple changes in tone and scene . . . From the Mouth of the Whale . . . stands comparison with the Iceland of the Nobel Prize laureate Halldor Laxness. --Carolyne Larrington, The Times Literary Supplement

Sjon is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant. From the Mouth of the Whale is strange and wonderful, an epic made mad, made extraordinary. Junot Diaz Hallucinatory, lyrical, by turns comic and tragic, this extraordinary novel should make Sjon an international name. His evocation of seventeenth-century Iceland through the eyes of a man born before his time has stuck in my mind like nothing else I've read in the last year. Hari Kunzru

<p> Sjon is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant. From the Mouth of the Whale is strange and wonderful, an epic made mad, made extraordinary. --Junot Diaz<p> <p> Hallucinatory, lyrical, by turns comic and tragic, this extraordinary novel should make Sjon an international name. His evocation of seventeenth-century Iceland through the eyes of a man born before his time has stuck in my mind like nothing else I've read in the last year. --Hari Kunzru<p>

Sj�n is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant. From the Mouth of the Whale is strange and wonderful, an epic made mad, made extraordinary. --Junot D�az Hallucinatory, lyrical, by turns comic and tragic, this extraordinary novel should make Sj�n an international name. His evocation of seventeenth-century Iceland through the eyes of a man born before his time has stuck in my mind like nothing else I've read in the last year. --Hari Kunzru Sjon is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant. From the Mouth of the Whale is strange and wonderful, an epic made mad, made extraordinary. --Junot Diaz Hallucinatory, lyrical, by turns comic and tragic, this extraordinary novel should make Sjon an international name. His evocation of seventeenth-century Iceland through the eyes of a man born before his time has stuck in my mind like nothing else I've read in the last year. --Hari Kunzru Sjon is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant. From the Mouth of the Whale is strange and wonderful, an epic made mad, made extraordinary. Junot Diaz Hallucinatory, lyrical, by turns comic and tragic, this extraordinary novel should make Sjon an international name. His evocation of seventeenth-century Iceland through the eyes of a man born before his time has stuck in my mind like nothing else I've read in the last year. Hari Kunzru Sjon is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant. From the Mouth of the Whale is strange and wonderful, an epic made mad, made extraordinary. Junot Diaz Hallucinatory, lyrical, by turns comic and tragic, this extraordinary novel should make Sjon an international name. His evocation of seventeenth-century Iceland through the eyes of a man born before his time has stuck in my mind like nothing else I've read in the last year. Hari Kunzru Sjon is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant. From the Mouth of the Whale is strange and wonderful, an epic made mad, made extraordinary. --Junot Diaz Hallucinatory, lyrical, by turns comic and tragic, this extraordinary novel should make Sjon an international name. His evocation of seventeenth-century Iceland through the eyes of a man born before his time has stuck in my mind like nothing else I've read in the last year. --Hari Kunzru The narrative is kaleidoscopic and mesmerizing, comic and poignant by turns. Victoria Cribb's translation brilliantly captures these multiple changes in tone and scene . . . From the Mouth of the Whale . . . stands comparison with the Iceland of the Nobel Prize laureate Halldor Laxness. --Carolyne Larrington, The Times Literary Supplement

Sjon is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant. From the Mouth of the Whale is strange and wonderful, an epic made mad, made extraordinary. --Junot Diaz Hallucinatory, lyrical, by turns comic and tragic, this extraordinary novel should make Sjon an international name. His evocation of seventeenth-century Iceland through the eyes of a man born before his time has stuck in my mind like nothing else I've read in the last year. --Hari Kunzru

Sjon is the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant. From the Mouth of the Whale is strange and wonderful, an epic made mad, made extraordinary. --Junot Diaz Hallucinatory, lyrical, by turns comic and tragic, this extraordinary novel should make Sjon an international name. His evocation of seventeenth-century Iceland through the eyes of a man born before his time has stuck in my mind like nothing else I've read in the last year. --Hari Kunzru

Author Information

Sjón is the author of, among other works, The Blue Fox and The Whispering Muse. Born in Reykjavík in 1962, he is an award-winning novelist, poet, and playwright. His novels have been translated into twenty-five languages. Also a lyricist, he has written songs for Björk, including for her most recent project, Biophilia, and was nominated for an Oscar for the lyrics he cowrote (with Lars von Trier) for Dancer in the Dark. He lives in Reykjavík.

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