I almost forgot that I had started this section on the blog! So here we go - round two of what I'm currently reading. As always, if you want to keep up with my reading in real-time, add me on Goodreads.
Ahhh, this is brilliant. I read Burial Rites by Hannah Kent a couple weeks ago (review for this one coming soon) and obviously I couldn't quite let go of the Icelandic setting. Halldór Laxness seems to be a rather popular Icelandic author and this translation from Magnus Magnusson is truly wonderful. The plot seems to be moving quite slowly - and it almost reads like a memoir - however, the writing is perfectly beautiful and I cannot stop reading. It follows the life of a young fishing boy and his ascent in to education and the world of music. I've put some quotes below so you can really observe the beauty of the writing. I cannot wait to finish this book and I've already got some of Laxness' other works on my TBR list.
“I have written about everything at Brekkukot, both indoors and out, which can be given a name; but I have scarcely said a word yet about my grandmother, who was certainly not some useless ornament about the place. On the other hand, if she were likened to the heart of the house, one could say exactly the same about her as one does about healthy hearts in general, that whoever is lucky enough to have such a heart is quite unaware of having a heart at all.”
"I felt that I was dying, and perhaps I did die a little, or rather began to die in the way that the cocoon of the chrysalis cracks at the end of winter; but unfortunately I did not die so thoroughly that I achieved new life like a butterfly."
Now I've only just started this one but it's had really good reviews on Goodreads so I'm excited to get stuck in. The Song of Achilles is a re-imagination of Homer's The Iliad. This was Madeline Miller's debut novel and amazingly it won the Orange Women's Prize for Fiction (now the Baileys Prize) in 2012. It's been described as an action-adventure story as well as an epic love-story, and so I'm SUPER excited to read on. After all, I do love a good classically-influenced tale.
Have you reading either of these two titles? What did you think? Let me know!