The Nobel Laureate

Halldor Laxness (1902-1998) is the undisputed master of contemporary Icelandic fiction and one of the greatest European novelists of the twentieth century. He was the first Icelander writing in his native language to achieve international renown, culminating with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955.

HALLDOR LAXNESS

Halldor Laxness was prolific during his long career, writing more than 60 books which have been translated into 43 languages and published in more than 500 editions. They have sold in large numbers all over the world, e.g. hundreds of thousands of copies in the US alone. His career is unique, the diversity of his works almost without parallel, and with every book he can be said to have approached his readers from a new and unexpected direction.

In Laxness' works man and nature, legend and reality merge in magic unity and as a master of story-telling he possesses a fantastic imagination and inexhaustible resources of technique.

Nine of the stories by Halldor Laxness have been filmed. The filming rights to the tenth, Independent People, one of Halldor Laxness' most famous novels, have recently been sold. The film will be directed by Hector Babenco who was nominated for the Oscar Academy Award for his film, The Kiss of the Spider Woman. Ruth Prawer Jhabwala, who has received the Academy Award for Best Script twice (A Room with a View, 1986, and Howard's End, 1992), will be writing the script. Production will be in the hands of the companies Pegasus and Merchant Ivory Productions, the latter ranking among the best known independent film producers in the world.

Literary agent: Licht&Licht, Copenhagen, Denmark

"... a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows us a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: it is not possible to be unimpressed. The right stuff, the real thing.

Daily Telegraph

One of the greatest novelists of the 20th century.

Die Welt

Laxness is the patriarch of European literature.

Die Wochenzeitung

Few characters in fiction are portrayed in anything like the kind of depth with which Laxness treats Bjartur [in Independent People], and few modern novels exhibit such masterly range and power. This is one of the great ones.

Kirkus Review

Independent People has virtually everything a novel can offer: a skilfully evoked setting, characters who imbed themselves in your consciousness, passion and scope, narrative brio ... Laxness is a brilliant writer. He can capture an elusive truth in a short span of words ... It's good to have him back.

Washington Post