Overview

Winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize 'Enchantingly poetic . . . spellbinding . . . magical . . . exceptional' Independent The year is 1883. The stark Icelandic winter landscape is the backdrop. We follow the priest, Skugga-Baldur, on his hunt for the enigmatic blue fox. From there we're transported to the world of the naturalist Fridrik B. Fridriksson and his charge, Abba, who suffers from Down's syndrome, and who came to his rescue when he was on the verge of disaster. Then to a shipwreck off the Icelandic coast in the spring of 1868. The fates of all these characters are intrinsically bound and gradually, surprisingly, unravelled in this spellbinding fable that is part mystery, part fairy tale.

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9781529342956

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Describes its world with brilliant, precise, concrete colour and detail...Comic and lyrical. - A.S. Byatt, The Times A taut, poetic and beautifully judged fable. - Carolyne Larrington, TLS A nearly perfect modern myth. - Wall Street Journal A magical novel - Bjork Wondrous . . . with a strange black humour at its core. - Dazed & Confused

Author Information

Born in Reykjavik in 1962, Sjon is the author of the novels The Blue Fox, The Whispering Muse, From the Mouth of the Whale, Moonstone, CoDex 1962 and Red Milk, for which he has won several prizes including the Nordic Council's Literature Prize and the Icelandic Literary Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and his work has been translated into thirty-five languages. In addition, Sjon has written nine poetry collections as well as four opera librettos and lyrics for various artists. He was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics in the film Dancer in the Dark. In 2017, Sjon became the third writer - following Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell - to contribute to Future Library, a public artwork based in Norway spanning a hundred years. Sjon lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. Victoria Cribb has translated more than twenty-five books by Icelandic authors. Her translation of Moonstone was longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award and the PEN America Translation Prize in 2016. In 2017 she received the Ordstir honorary translation award for services to Icelandic literature.

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