A timeless elemental masterpiece, which was one of the works for which Halldor Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It evokes the mood and rhythm of life in an isolated community in a remote corner of Europe as no other writer has done since the time of the great Icelandic sagas. Richly lyrical, often humorous, conceived on a grand scale, and with a cast of memorable characters, Independent People is one of the truly great poetic novels of the 20th century. It is the story of a crofter on Iceland’s remotest moor, but it is also a study of deception, love and grief among all people.

“One of the greatest novelists of the 20th century.”
DIE WELT

“Reader rejoice! At last this funny, clever, sardonic and brilliant book is back in print. Independent People is one of my Top Ten Favourite Books of All Time.”
ANNIE PROULX

“There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life. . . . My favorite book by a living novelist is Independent People.””
BRAD LEITHAUSER, NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

“A masterpiece.”
DAVID MITCHELL

“The greatest Icelandic novel and surely one of the best books of the 20th century… I read it as a teenager and it had a life-lasting effect.”
HALLGRIMUR HELGASON, GUARDIAN

“Laxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: It is not possible to be unimpressed.”
FAY WELDON ON HER ‚BOOK OF THE CENTURY‘, DAILY TELEGRAPH

“Marvellously fluent and unaffected… one of the most original and skilfully written novels of the 20th century.”
CAROLYNE LARRRINGTON, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

“Laxness has a poet’s imagination and a poet’s gift for phrase and symbol. . . . Bjartur is a magnificent and complex symbol of peasant independence.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“Do yourself a favour and read Independent People. Opening this book is like opening a chest of treasures. Reading this book is like taking the treasures out and appreciating them, savouring them, one by one, sentence by sentence. This is the kind of novel that reminds you how glad you are that you learned to read in the first place.”
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“To read him is to discover an extra tastebud. He creates a world that belongs in another dimension, like the landscape of his country – familiar, strange, seen as in a dream… an endearing and unforgettable voice.”
DAILY TELEGRAPH

“It moved me immensely.”
BARBARA KINGSOLVER