Scandinavian Literature
Globe Corner Bookstore’s Shortlist of Scandinavian Literature
Midnight sun, Swedish meatballs, universal health care, vikings, and Ikea. Any number of wonderful things come to mind when we think about Scandinavia. The books below are also on our list.
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Independent People
by Halldor Laxness
Having spent eighteen years in humiliating servitude, Bjartur wants nothing more than to raise his flocks unbeholden to any man. But Bjartur’s spirited daughter wants to live unbeholden to him. What ensues is a battle of wills that is by turns harsh and touching, elemental in its emotional intensity, and intimate in its homely detail.
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The Sagas of Icelanders
edited by Jane Smiley
A unique body of medieval literature, the Sagas rank with the world’s greatest literary treasures–as epic as Homer, as deep in tragedy as Sophocles, as engagingly human as Shakespeare.
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The Pets
by Bragi Olafsson
An alternately dark and hilarious novel that increases in complexity with each passing page. Emil is back in Reykjavik from a trip to London. On the plane ride home he met a beautiful girl named Greta. He’s hoping Greta will call–and that she won’t call while he’s on the phone with his girlfriend, Vigdis.
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Jar City: A Reykjavik Thriller
by Arnaldur Indridason
A man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat, and the police have no obvious leads. Delving into the dead man’s past, two investigators discover that the city of Reykjavik has one or two secrets of its own, secrets it would rather keep.
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Smilla’s Sense of Snow
by Peter Hoeg
She thinks more highly of snow and ice than she does of love. She lives in a world of numbers, science and memories–a dark, exotic stranger in a strange land. And now Smilla Jaspersen is convinced she has uncovered a shattering crime…
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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
by Stieg Larsson
The third and final novel in Stieg Larsson’s internationally best-selling trilogy. Lisbeth Salander–the heart of Larsson’s two previous novels–lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders.
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Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson
An early morning adventure out stealing horses leads to the tragic death of one boy and a resulting lifetime of guilt and isolation for his friend, in this moving tale about the painful loss of innocence and of traditional ways of life that are gone forever
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In Cod We Trust: Living the Norwegian Dream
by Eric Dregni
Eric Dregni’s great-grandfather Ellef fled Norway in 1893 when it was the poorest country in Europe. More than 100 years later his great-grandson traveled back to find that it is now the richest. Dregni’s Scandinavian roots do little to prepare him for a year in Trondheim.
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Christina, Queen of Sweden: The Restless Life of a European Eccentric
by Veronica Buckley
This debut work is a lively and sparkling biography offering a rare glimpse of the world of 17th-century Europe through the figure of an unorthodox and compelling queen.
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The Greenlanders
by Jane Smiley
The Greenlanders is the story of one family: proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose willful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Echoing the simple power of the old Norse sagas, here is a novel that brings a remote civilization to life and shows how it was very like our own.
