A razor-sharp satire on the many forms of silence, on surrender in the face of atrocities, and on reckonings that never come to pass.
When a rising political star is quietly sidelined after a scandal involving a heart transplant and political nepotism, he finds himself reassigned to the newly established Bureau of Information and charged with curating a government-backed “fact database” meant to counter disinformation. But in this Kafkaesque new role, Steinn is soon entangled in something far more dangerous than career rehab. An ambitious young developer proposes to feed millions of archival documents into a powerful AI to uncover historical truths, only for the machine to reveal unfortunate connections between Icelandic and German authorities in the 1939s. As suppressed facts surface and the line between truth, power, and memory begins to fray, Steinn, his ex-partner (now his boss), and the team must confront not only the ghosts of the past but the ideological biases of the very tool they’ve unleashed.
The Facts is a sharp and chilling novel about the weaponization of truth in the age of AI, exploring what societies choose to remember and what they are desperate to forget. A darkly humorous and intellectually provocative story.
“A fascinating novel.”
TT, KILJAN, NATIONAL TV
“This book is brilliant. … A sharp, lively satire of party politics, government bureaucracy, the media, nepotism, scandals, and cancel culture, this original and forward-thinking novel is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking.”
SJOFN ASARE, LESTRARKLEFINN.IS
“Reykjavik Prison sheds light on atrocities at the roots of our Republic. The book is an unforgettable monument to people that authorities sacrificed. And a middle-finger raised to those authorities.”
KRISTIN OMARSDOTTIR, WRITER