The momentum of world history: Agnes Lukauskas and Omar Arnarson meet early one piercingcold Sunday morning in the taxi queue in the centre of Reykjavik. Three years later Omar burns
their house to the ground, drives to Keflavik, and abandons the country by plane. The story actually begins long before then, in the summer of 1941, when half of the residents of the small Lithuanian town of Jurbarkas are slaughtered in the surrounding forest. Two of Agnes’ great-grandfathers were in the massacre – one shot the other – and three generations later Agnes has made the holocaust the centre point of her own life. Her obsession leads her to Arnor, a literate Neo-Nazi. Evil is about the holocaust and about love, about Iceland and Lithuania, about Agnes who becomes lost in herself while Jon Baldvin Hannibalsson, Icelandic ambassador in Lithuania, acknowledges the independence of the Baltic countries and Lithuanian criminals begin operating from Reykjavik, about Agnes who doesn’t know whether she is a fan of the BRanking World Champions in Handball or of Bogdan Kowalczyk, about Agnes who loves Omar who loves Agnes who loves Arnor.
• The Icelandic Literary Prize 2012
• The Icelandic Bookseller Prize for the best novel of 2012
• Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2013
• Prix Transfuge du meilleur roman Scandinave
• Shortlisted for the Prix Médicis étranger 2015
• Nominated for the Prix du meilleur roman étranger 2015
• Nominated for the Prix Médicis étranger 2015
“A very, very important author has emerged.”
LIVRES HEBDO, FRANCE
“Evil is a marvellous novel. … There are countless ways to address the present and mourn the past, but the way in which Evil does so completely unnerved me. … What will become of the modern novel now, following this book? Evil is a novel that is truly one of a kind. It is the modern novel. … It is as tremendous as the works of Sofi Oksanen. … Evil is a unique novel.”
ELISABETH HJORTH, SVENSKA DAGBLADET, SWEDEN
“Take My Struggle 6 by Karl Ove Knausgårds along with Purge by Sofi Oksanen, add Reykjavík and you get Evil.”
BO BJÖRNVIG, WEEKENDAVISEN, DENMARK
“Eirikur Orn Norddahl has written a cruel, sometimes cruelly funny book about how ideology and history permeates our most intimate spheres. Evil.”
SPIEGEL ONLINE, GERMANY
(5 stars out of 5) “So masterfully done, original and cool that it’s frightening … Crazy book! Read it! … Informative, entertaining, sad and funny. It combines history, love story, philosophical pondering and humour … ”
THORUNN HREFNA SIGURJONSDOTTIR, FRETTABLADID DAILY
“The best book of the year.”
ATHENS VOICE, GREECE
