(b. 1948) is among Iceland’s best storytellers. He made his publishing debut in 1978 and has since written novels and poetry and also books for children. With his highly acclaimed trilogy, Trolls’ Cathedral (1992), Potter’s Field (1996) and Winter Journey (1999), he has earned a place among the major realists in Icelandic letters. Trolls’ Cathedral was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize in 1992 as well as the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996. An adaption for the stage premiered at The National Theatre in 1996 and the film rights have been sold. Gunnarsson received the Icelandic Literary Prize for his novel, The Ax and the Earth, in 2004. His two part novel  The Painter and Sinner was published in 2012 and 2015.

Film rights to The Ax and the Earth have been sold to Palomar Pictures. Olafur has also translated various works of fiction to Icelandic, among them Kerouac’s On the Road and Dashiel Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. From 2013 untill 2018 Olafur was a consultant on the TV show Vikings.

Olafur lives and works on a small farm a few miles out of Reykjavik.

“Gunnarsson has the gift of being able to tell riveting stories and create
protagonists who keep the reader enthralled from beginning to end …”
MORGUNBLADID DAILY

AWARDS

2003 – The Icelandic Literature Prize: Öxin og jörðin (The Ax and the Earth)
2003 – The Icelandic Booksellers’ Prize: Öxin og jörðin (The Ax and the Earth)
1999 – The National Broadcasting Service Writer’s Fund

NOMINATIONS

1996 – Shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
1992 – The Icelandic Literature Prize: Tröllakirkja (Trolls’ Cathedral)
1990 – Nordic Children’s Literature Award: Fallegi flughvalurinn (The Beautiful Flying Whale)