TRANSLATED BY PHILIP ROUGHTON
Publisher, UK: Penguin Random House / Vintage Classics. Publisher, US: Archipelago.
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.
“Laxness is a poet who writes to the edges of the pages, a visionary who allows us a plot.” Daily Telegraph
Starred review. „Laxness tackles such tough social themes as abuse, stigma, sexism, and economic inequality, as Salka must consistently spurn the sexual advances of her unprincipled stepfather, deal with bullying from other villagers, and square her romance with an idealistic local man with her political engagement and desire for independence. … Laxness also treats his characters with compassion … a remarkable achievement and will hopefully lead to a revival of interest in an oft-overlooked literary genius.“ Publishers Weekly
“(W)hat an odd, hard, disillusioned, splendid creation Salka is! A fresh translation is merely one reason to contemplate her anew. She also makes a beguiling figure for an age trafficking, as ours does, in gender fluidity. (…) To the reader, who perhaps knows her best, she is a roaming and hungering spirit, desperate for some resolution or recognition she cannot identify.” Brad Leithauser, Wall Street Journal
