Salka Valka
"On a winter night, an eleven-year-old Salvör and her unmarried mother Sigurlína disembark at the remote, run-down fishing village of Óseyri, where life is "lived in fish and consists of fish." The two struggle to make their way amidst the rough, salt-worn men of the town. After Si...
Main Author: | Halldór Laxness, 1902-1998. |
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Other Authors: | Roughton, Philip. |
Format: | Books Print Book |
Language: | English Icelandic |
Published: |
New York :
Archipelago Books,
2022.
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Subjects: |
Summary: |
"On a winter night, an eleven-year-old Salvör and her unmarried mother Sigurlína disembark at the remote, run-down fishing village of Óseyri, where life is "lived in fish and consists of fish." The two struggle to make their way amidst the rough, salt-worn men of the town. After Sigurlína's untimely death, Salvör pays for her funeral and walks home alone, precipitating her coming of age as a daring, strong-willed young woman who chops off her hair, earns her own wages, educates herself through political and philosophical texts, and soon becomes an advocate for the town's working class, organizing a local chapter of the seamen's union. A feminist coming-of-age tale, an elegy to the plight of the working class and the corrosive effects of social and economic inequality, and a poetic window into the arrival of modernity in a tiny industrial town, Salka Valka is a novel of epic proportions, living and breathing with its vibrant cast of characters, filled with tenderness, humor, and remarkable pathos"-- Provided by publisher |
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Item Description: |
"First published as Salka Valka in two volumes-"--title page |
Physical Description: |
624 pages |
ISBN: |
9781953861245 |
Author Notes: |
Philip Roughton is an award-winning translator of Icelandic literature. His translations include works by many of Iceland's best-known writers, including Laxness, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Bergsveinn Birgisson, Steinunn Sigurðardóttir, and others. He was awarded the 2015 American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Competition Prize, for his translation of Laxness' novel Gerpla ( Wayward Heroes ), the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize for 2016, for his translation of Jón Kalman Stefánsson's The Heart of Man , and an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship for 2017. |