The year is 1918 and from Reykjavik the erupting volcano Katla can be seen colouring the sky night and day. Life in the small capital carries on as usual despite the natural disaster, shortage of
coals and the Great War that still wages in the big world.

The sixteen year old Mani Steinn lives for the movies. Asleep he dreams the pictures in variations where the tapestry of events is threaded with strands from his own life. Awake he lives on the outskirts of society. But then the “Spanish influenza” epidemic comes ashore and forces thousands of the townspeople into the sick bed, killing hundreds.

The shadows of existence deepen. The black wings in Mani Steinn‘s breast beat faster. A chilling draught blows between the worlds in a place where life and death, reality and imagination, secrets and revelations jostle for dominance.

• The Icelandic Literary Prize 2013
• DV Cultural Prize for Literature 2013
• The Icelandic Booksellers‘ Prize 2013
• The Red Feather for the most curious sex scene in Icelandic literature 2013
• Nominated for the PEN America Literary Awards 2016
• Nominated for the Best Translated Book Award (BTBA) 2017 (US)
• Listed as One of the Best Novel of the Year in US 2016 by Financial Times
• 29th Anual Lambda Literary Award Finalist 2017
• Selected as one of the best Contemporary Scandinavian Literature 2017 by Booker International shortlistee Dorthe Nors
• Nominated for the Dublin Literary Award 2018

“We should count ourselves fortunate to live in the age of Sjón…”
PATRICK FLANERY, TLS

“Sjón’s simmering masterpiece.”
DAVID MITCHELL

“Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was is an experience like no other. The author confronts his own limits, and raises the bar for the reader too. His portrayal of Reykjavik in 1918 is magical. The scene where a movie theatre falls silent, because all the musicians have succumbed to an outbreak of Spanish flu, is marvellous … The novel has given me my best reading experience this year.”
EKA KURNIAWAN, FINANCIAL TIMES