Salka Valka

About the book

A new translation of Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness's masterpiece

Late one snowy midwinter night, in a remote Icelandic fishing village, a penniless woman arrives by boat. She comes with her daughter, the young but gutsy Salka Valka. The two must forge a life in this remote place, where everyone is at the mercy of a single wealthy merchant, and where everything revolves around fish.

After her mother's tragic death, Salka grows into a fiercely independent-minded adult - cutting off her hair, educating herself and becoming an advocate for the town's working class. A coming-of-age story, a feminist tale, a lament for Iceland's poor - this is the funny, tender, epic story of Salka Valka.

'Laxness is a poet who writes to the edges of the pages, a visionary who allows us a plot' Daily Telegraph

TRANSLATED BY PHILIP ROUGHTON