#salka valka

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Salka Valka | Author: Halldór Laxness | Publisher: Archipelago Books (2022)

[aroundtheworldin196books]

Iceland 🇮🇸: Salka Valka by Halldór Laxness

Translated from Icelandic by Philip Roughton and published by Vintage Classics

On a mid-winter night, an eleven-year-old Salvör and her unmarried mother Sigurlína disembark at the remote, run-down fishing village of Óseyri, where life is "lived in fish and consists of fish." The two women struggle to make their way amidst the domineering, salt-worn men of the town and their unsolicited attention, and, after Sigurlína's untimely death, Salvör pays for her funeral and walks home alone, precipitating her coming of age as a daring, strong-willed young woman who chops off her hair, earns her own wages, educates herself through political and philosophical texts, and, most significantly, becomes an advocate for the town's working class, ultimately organizing a local chapter of the seamen's union.

I borrowed this book from my local library after reading some praise for the recent translation. At almost 600 pages, this is the longest book I've read for this project so far, and with it's intense political topics it felt very epic and sweeping, I even had to renew my library loan on it so finish it, but it was worth it. The novel is full of strong characters whose lives and motivations you really feel that you understand. I'll check out more book by this author in the future, I'm sure.

Image: Salka Valka (1952)

[thatsugarglazedlook]

“The snow blew straight into their faces, as it always does with such people.”

[j-wcy]

The inside of Salka Valka - Fish & More, Reykjavik.  Our first real Icelandic food at this restaurant after we arrived at Reykjavik, Iceland.

[synnecrosisofsolace]

Salka Valka

Sofur thu svid thitt Svartur i augum Far i fulan pytt Fullan af draugum

(Sleep, you black-eyed pig. Fall into a deep pit of ghosts) by Halldór Laxness

[booksjudgedbytheircovers]

[iheartreykjavik]

When everything is said and done life is above all salt fish

Quote from Salka Valka by Laxness painted on the street in Austurstræti.