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Illska

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First edition

Illska ('evil'), published by Mál og menning in 2012, is an Icelandic novel, the fourth by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl. It won the 2012 Icelandic Literary Prize for fiction,[1] and was chosen as best Scandinavian fiction by the French literary magazine Transfuge.[2] The book has been widely translated and reviewed.

Summary

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Illska is set around 2010. Its main characters are Agnes Lukauskaite, a second-generation Jewish immigrant from Lithuania researching far-right populism for her MA thesis in history at the University of Iceland; her boyfriend Ómar Arnarson, a graduate in Icelandic linguistics left unemployed by the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis; and Arnór Þórðarson, a PhD-student in history and a far-right activist, who becomes Agnes's love-interest later in the novel. The novel intercalates musings in the narratorial voice about racism and right-wing populism, along with an account of Agnes's grandparents' experience of the Holocaust from their home town of Jurbarkas.[3]

Translations

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  • Illska, la maldad, trans. by Enrique Bernárdez (Xixón, Asturies: Hoja de Lata, 2018) [Spanish]
  • Zlo, trans. by Daria Lazić (Zagreb: Oceanmore, 2018) [Croatian]
  • Illska: To kako, trans. by Roula Georga Kopoulou (Athens: Polis, 2017) [Greek]
  • Illska: le mal, trans. by Eric Boury (Paris: Métailié, 2015) [French]
  • Böse, trans. by Betty Wahl and Tina Flecken (Stuttgart: Tropen, 2014) [German]
  • Ondska, trans. by Anna Gunnarsdóttir Grönberg (Malmö: Rámus, 2014) [Swedish]
  • Ondskab, trans. by Nanna Kalkar (København: Ordenes By, 2013) [Danish]

References

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  1. ^ Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson, 'Not The Knee-Jerk Reaction – Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl on Illska', The Reykjavík Grapevine, 12 March 2013; http://grapevine.is/culture/literature-and-poetry/2013/03/12/not-the-knee-jerk-reaction/.
  2. ^ Brynja, 'Heimska valin besti skandinavíski skáldskapurinn', Bæjarins besta (6 January 2017), "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-03-22. Retrieved 2017-03-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  3. ^ Sólveig Ásta Sigurðardóttir, 'Landvistarleyfi í bókmenntaheiminum: Birtingarmyndir innflytjenda í íslenskum samtímaskáldsögum' (unpublished MA thesis, University of Iceland, 2015), p. 37; http://skemman.is/is/item/view/1946/21030.