The houseflies glanced back and forth between the fly on the front page and the commotion of the people. They were all thinking the same thing. No-one in the whole world would be able to explain the goings-on during the night as well as they could. They were the only ones who had seen what happened, with their sophisticated and perceptive housefly eyes. That is why they felt they should try and explain what brought about the end of the war and a housefly ending up on the front pages of all the world’s biggest newspapers.
Kolkex, Hermann Sukker, and The Fly are just ordinary houseflies. The sort of flies very few people notice and which hardly ever do anything significant. Until the day they decide to run away from home and seek out the good monks of Nepal.
The Fly that Ended the War is an unusual story, both hilarious and deadly serious at the same time; it is about flies, people, and war.
It was chosen from a large number of scripts that competed for the 2011 Icelandic Children´s Literature Prize.
• Icelandic Children’s Literature Prize 2011
R E V I E W S
“An enjoyable and imaginative story, told from an unusual perspective …”
Pall Baldvin Baldvinsson, Frettatiminn weekly
“… the book is entertaining, original and well-written … Bryndis tells an amusing story that both children and grown-ups should enjoy, and all the book’s readers will definitely think twice before they squash the next housefly who drops in for a visit.”
Birta Björnsdottir, Morgunbladid daily
“An entertaining book, written in a light and lively style. Bryndis manages to write about a very serious matter, war, and communicate a message of peace without preaching … using instead imagination and humour in an amusing way. … The book is attractively illustrated by Thorarinn M. Baldursson, with a simple drawing at the beginning of each chapter.”
Eyja M. Brynjarsdottir, Druslubaekur og dodrantar
“… a book with a meaningful message … Such a book could easily become terribly sentimental, but the flies’ story never does. The perspective is too unusual and the story itself too funny.”
Helga Birgisdottir, Spassian.is
“… the story is both amusing and gripping, not to mention original. … Reading well written children’s books can be a real pleasure, whether you’re an adult or a child, so we should rejoice in books that both adults and children can read, identify with and gain something meaningful from. The reader gets a new view of the world through the eyes of the housefly and a new view of houseflies through the writer’s tale. And it does you good to look at your environment from a strange and unusual perspective, because then you see what you have stopped seeing. The Fly that Ended the War paints an especially vibrant and engrossing picture of both everyday events and events which we northerners find strange. The reader sees how oddly people can act sometimes, and how marvellous and intriguing solidarity, friendship and the little things in life can be.”
Maria Bjarkadottir, Bókmenntavefurinn
“The author has a lot to say and manages to get it across very well in this short and sympathetic story. On the whole a well-written text, which manages to call forth a smile or two despite its serious undertones, war in all its ugly forms, interspersed with amusingly lyrical metaphors.”
Roald Eyvindarson, Frettabladid daily
