A vibrant, emotionally rich novel about ambition and adventure, told by a master storyteller. 

Salvar Bernódusson is a penniless farmhand from Iceland’s Westfjords who reinvents himself as Sal Benson — self-made man, mine investor, and restless dreamer. Based on real letters and diary fragments found in the author’s family archives, the novel follows Sal’s journey across oceans and class lines, through silver mines, English salons, and encounters with the nationalist poet Einar Benediktsson. Driven by a desire to uplift others, even organizing swimming lessons after losing his own father to drowning, Sal remains unanchored, full of ideas and longing. Determined to start again, he boards a brand-new ship to return to America: the Titanic. With humour, pathos, and deep national resonance, this is a story of ambition, identity, and the haunting irony of a life always in motion. 

“He is an Icelandic Erskine Caldwell or William Faulkner – Karason is a genial storyteller, and has already won himself a place in the literary history of Iceland and the Nordic countries.”
BOKEN MAGAZINE, BO AXELSSON