I´m having trouble. I tried to edit what I´d written and my copy wouldn´t allow editing. So I couldn't give you the dates for Laxness and Þordarson. Laxness: 1902 - 1998; Þordarson: 1889-1974. I don't know the latter's work at all. You're on your own. Among contempoary writers, I know a bit about Sjón; he took his nom de plume from his name Sigurjón. I read his novel The Blue Fox (in translation) and can't remember it. I note that he is also a performer-musician, having worked with Björk. I know the mystery writers better: Arnaldur Indriþason and Yrsa Sigursdottír, very different from each other and each of them very popular. I gave my collection of Indriþason to the ICCT library so you can borrow a copy, if you live in Toronto, by appointment with Kara Schuster. I recommend that you keep reading Logberg Heimskringla (Icelandic-Canadian newspaper) and The Icelandic Connection (magazine) to keep you up to date with current Icelandic writing. It´s worth reading!

So let's do this: Halldór Laxness, of course, and the only Icelander to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (1955). He wrote a lot but his novel, Independent People, is arguably the best novel of the 20th century. I normally gulp books because I'm a fast reader but this one I didn't gulp. I'd read just so much and then I'd have to stop and absorb it. He writes like the sagas, without dipping into stream of consciousness, but the effect on your mind is devastating.

Another writer, contemporary with Laxness but not as well known, is also considered a giant of Icelandic literature. Þórbergur Þórðarson, relatively unknown outside of Iceland, has had two of his works translated and published in English, The Stones Speak and Of Icelandic Nobles and Idiot Savants.