In The Outlaw Jon Gnarr describes the harsh world of the teenage years and wrestles with difficult and somewhat bleak memories of this troubled stage of his life. Fourteen years old he is sent to a boarding school in Nupur in Iceland’s Westfjords where conflicts and bullying were simply par for the course. Punk rock was his way of coping with life but gradually he discovers a growing interest in girls. At the same time he ponders questions about right and wrong and tries to be true to his feelings.
When Jon returns to Reykjavik he feels rootless and adrift. He begins in high school, changes schools, drops out, tries out different workplaces, but is never at ease, leaves home and starts a life of partying hard, meeting new people, but is still alone in the world. And one day everything goes black.
Jon Gnarr describes the restlessness and despair of these sensitive formative years with his typical candor, bluntness, and celebrated sense of humour, but the underlying seriousness lend his words weight, as life and death are at stake.

“Such pain, intimacy and alienation. This is an utterly incredible book.”
OFEIGUR SIGURDSSON, WRITER