Praise for The Sorrow of Angels
"The language in this book is very atmospheric, as bleak and beautiful as the glaciers and heaths of Iceland itself. And the men’s many trials keep the reader turning pages."
—Kathryn Bashaar, Historical Novels Review
“The second novel in a trilogy featuring an unnamed boy, The Sorrow of Angels by Icelandic author Jón Kalman Stefánsson will leave readers breathless and eager for the final installment but not before taking them on an epic journey through ice, snow, and the dark corners of the human heart.”
—Sara Beth West, Shelf Awareness
“‘Some books are essential, others diversions,’ the boy thinks to himself. This book belongs in the former category.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Intense and thoughtful at once . . . Like Heaven and Hell before it, The Sorrow of Angels combines the elements of an epic adventure with a strong musical sensibility. Stefánsson’s language is poetic, his characters are pushed to their limits—physically and emotionally—and the remoteness and ruggedness of the remote reaches of northern Iceland a century ago is portrayed with relentless intensity. A thoroughly enjoyable read.”
—Joseph Schreiber, roughghosts
Praise for Heaven and Hell
“A perfect little novel . . . enthralling, seductive . . . Heaven and Hell embraces and defies the categories of story—adventure, historical, romance, ghost, metaphysical.”
—Joy Williams, Book Post
“A moving story of loss and courage told in prose as crisp and clear as the Icelandic landscape where it takes place . . . Stefánsson writes like an epic poet of old about the price the natural world exacts on humans, but he’s not without sympathy or an ability to find affirming qualities in difficult situations.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The novel is lyrical in detailing hardscrabble life along polar sea shores, where everyone has lost someone, yet the fishing boats keep launching . . . A poetic soul sets out on a quest to honor his lost friend in the aching, trilogy-opening novel Heaven and Hell."
—Foreword Reviews
"[A] brief, elegiac novel . . . Written in dense, poetic prose, with more emphasis on mood than plot, this novel circles through the many ways of surviving in a harsh place."
—Booklist
Praise for Your Absence Is Darkness
“Comparisons do not do justice to the complexity of Stefánsson’s book, nor the uniqueness of his prose, rendered here in a tumblingly beautiful translation by Philip Roughton.”
—Daniel Mason, New York Times
"Stefansson uses the drama and comedy of everyday lives to dive into a broad range of topics: philosophy, music, faith, and even the science of earthworms."
—New York Times
"Like fellow Scandinavian authors Jon Fosse and Karl Ove Knausgaard, Mr. Stefánsson joins plainspoken depictions of daily life to intimations of mysticism, creating a spectral, haunted atmosphere . . . Questioning, vulnerable and openly sentimental, this is an absorbing commemoration of what the author calls the paradox that rules our existence, the vivifying joy and paralyzing sorrow of loving another person."
—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
"I couldn’t put it down."
—Washington Post
"What makes this so irresistible is the narrator’s constant optimism as he probes profound questions from within the murk of his consciousness ('Give me darkness, and then I’ll know where the light is'). Stefánsson is poised to make his mark on the world stage."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
